Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond

!±8±Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond

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Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America's manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA's Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race. He helped to launch Alan Shepard and John Glenn, then assumed the flight director's role in the Gemini program, which he guided to fruition. With his teammates, he accepted the challenge to carry out President John F. Kennedy's commitment to land a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s.Kranz was flight director for both Apollo 11, the mission in which Neil Armstrong fulfilled President Kennedy's pledge, and Apollo 13. He headed the Tiger Team that had to figure out how to bring the three Apollo 13 astronauts safely back to Earth. (In the film Apollo 13, Kranz was played by the actor Ed Harris, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance.)In Failure Is Not an Option, Gene Kranz recounts these thrilling historic events and offers new information about the famous flights. What appeared as nearly flawless missions to the moon were, in fact, a series of hair-raising near misses. When the space technology failed, as it sometimes did, the controllers' only recourse was to rely on their skills and those of their teammates. Kranz takes us inside Mission Control and introduces us to some of the whiz kids-still in their twenties, only a few years out of college-who had to figure it all out as they went along, creating a great and daring enterprise. He reveals behind-the-scenes details to demonstrate the leadership, discipline, trust, and teamwork that made the space program a success.Finally, Kranz reflects on what has happened to the space program and offers his own bold suggestions about what we ought to be doing in space now.This is a fascinating firsthand account written by a veteran mission controller of one of America's greatest achievements.

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KU's Astronaut: Steve Hawley

!±8± KU's Astronaut: Steve Hawley

Steve Hawley, professor of physics and astronomy, is a former NASA astronaut who has flown five missions on the space shuttle. Here, he discusses his trips into space and how he relates orbiting Earth to teaching in a Kansas classroom. For more information, visit: oread.ku.edu

KU's Astronaut: Steve Hawley

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Apollo Astronaut Training at the Nevada Test Site

!±8± Apollo Astronaut Training at the Nevada Test Site

In addition to being used for atomic weapon testing, the Nevada Test Site was also used for training the early Apollo Astronauts. For three days beginning on February 16, 1965, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Dick Gordon, Buzz Aldrin, Dave Scott and Russell "Rusty" Schweikart trained for manned missions to the moon.

The three day mission was carried out at Sedan Crater, Buckboard Mesa and Schooner Crater. Its purpose was to train the men in how to conduct geological and geophysical studies while wearing suits similar to what they would be wearing on the moon. Each day had a different set of mission objectives based on the terrain presented at each location. And each mission was reviewed to ensure that proper training occurred to allow them to meet each objective while on the moon.

In addition to this historic first Nevada training for astronauts, two additional groups were trained in the area starting on February 24th and March 2nd of the same year. The powers that be felt this location offered the most realistic training opportunity available to the astronauts before they actually had to do it for real on the moon. In fact, the training was viewed as such a success - based on actual results that Armstrong and others achieved on the moon that they revisited training in that area of Nevada for future missions.

Training in the area of Schooner crater continued throughout the Apollo program and was an early test area for the moon rover used by the crew of Apollo 16.

This training was valuable for several reasons.

First, it gave the astronauts a chance to practice their missions in a realistic location. Each area was remote and barren just like the surface of the moon would be. Of course, there were not the risks that would be experienced on the moon but it was a very accurate simulation of the real thing.

Second, it was believed and later verified by the actual moon missions that the terrain around Schooner crater and Buckboard Mesa was very similar to locations on the moon that were visited. In fact, this highly realistic training allowed J.W. Young of Apollo 16 to recognize a secondary crater produced by ejects from South Ray crater and for H.H. Schmitt to accurately describe a 600-meter lunar crater in the Haemus Mountains west of Sulpicius Gallus by noting its similarities and differences when compared to one of the Buckboard Mesa craters.

Without this training, the moon missions would not have been nearly as successful as they were. They still would have been an exciting high point in history but the quantity and quality of the scientific portions of the missions would have been much poorer if the astronauts did not invest this training time in a desolate corner of Nevada.

Apollo Astronaut Training at the Nevada Test Site

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