Failure is not an option

I had the privilege today of meeting Gene Kranz, former Mission Director for NASA during the Gemini/Apollo programs. I’m in Orlando for a User’s Conference for some design software that we use at work, Mr. Kranz was on hand to deliver the keynote address.

One of the (few) advantages of being an Olde Phart is having experienced a half century plus of what the textbooks call “history”. Witnessing much of the space program as a child made a big impression on me, I won’t say it caused me to become an engineer but it certainly affected the trajectory (no pun intended) of my career. I had professors in college and older colleagues at work who were a part of the aerospace industry during the ’60s, and my hometown’s proximity to the rocket motor facility where the Saturn V rockets were assembled and tested was also imprinted into my mind. I can still remember hearing the windows rattle in their frames in my parents’ house whenever the NASA facility would perform a test burn of the Saturn V rockets some 50 miles away. Hearing the accounts of the evolution of the space program, the emotions and procedural responses to the Apollo I accident, and the building euphoria of the moon landing program that culminated in the very real drama of the Apollo XIII rescue mission as told by Gene Kranz himself had my eyes moist. He was gracious enough to shake my hand and sign my copy of his book after the speech.

I expected him to be older, he’s 79. Most of his Mission Control team were under the age of 30. It was a group of very special young men, no less heroic than the astronauts themselves. He appears to be stronger and more energetic than I am, even at his age. I was in awe.