
Former NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz Restores Mission Control in Houston - shortlived
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/30/737327895/former-nasa-flight-director-gene-kranz-restores-mission-control-in-houston
======
cjf4
What stands out to me about Kranz's view of technology and the future is his
optimism. While it might be tempting to dismiss this as dated postwar
scientific idealism (e.g. Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y."), Kranz walked the walk by
successfully guiding the greatest accomplishment of the era.

Kranz's inclusion of "love" adjacent to "skills" and "knowledge" is the lesson
our current technological culture could stand to learn the most from.

~~~
driverdan
> Kranz walked the walk by successfully guiding the greatest accomplishment of
> the era.

The greatest human accomplishment _ever_.

~~~
sizzzzlerz
I don’t know about that. Magellan’s 1519 circumnavigation around what was then
unknown parts is also worthy that title.

~~~
harlanlewis
Only commenting on this because "unknown" feels a bit off, especially in the
context of greatest human achievements.

Much of the Polynesian Triangle and Indian Ocean trade routes were established
hundreds and in some areas thousands of years prior to Magellan. Tierra del
Fuego (Straight of Magellan) had been inhabited by nomadic seafarers for
thousands of years. Magellan's personal circumnavigation requires including
his previous voyages to the Malay peninsula via India.

Circumnavigation a mere ~30 years after Portugal first reached the Cape of
Good Hope is extraordinary. Full stop.

But tweaking perspective shows how reaching the Indian Ocean pulled back the
curtain on an already developed world, where interconnected maritime trade
included both China and Mozambique. The 1300s scholar Ibn Battuta of Tangier
visited Beijing, Timbuktu, Singapore, Kenya, and Constantinople within 30
years. Technology and motivations unique to Europeans stitched together routes
across the world and did it in a way that enabled others to quickly follow,
but there were precious few places visited that someone else didn't already
traverse and call home.

------
chasd00
I was there a couple weeks ago. They had the Apollo control room blocked off
to visitors for the rennovations so we saw a different one. The tours are
kinda boring but you have to suffer one to get to the Saturn V. That thing is
incredible, looking at the welds on the engines knowing they were done by hand
blows me away. Also, seeing how large the turbo pumps are and imagining the
LOX flowing at full tilt is scary. I get the feeling the term "control" is
used very loosely once those engines are ignited.

~~~
larrydag
I've been on the tour and I didn't think it was boring. I learned a lot of
past and present space exploration. I think there are 2 or 3 different tours
you can choose so return trips are recommended.

I agree the Saturn V is a thing of monstrous beauty. The pictures do not do it
justice. You have to stand next to it to really appreciate the magnitude of
the engineering and workmanship.

Also another good NASA site to tour is the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi
where they test the engines to this day. I believe it's where Wernher Von
Braun spent most of his time.

~~~
rootbear
I grew up in Huntsville, AL, in the 60s. Von Braun lived there and the Saturn
V engines were tested there. The Stennis test stand was built for the Shuttle
engines, I think. The test stand was south of Huntsville, on the banks of the
Tennessee river. When they tested the F-1 we could hear it at our house on the
north side of the city and it would shake the dishes in the kitchen cabinets.

~~~
larrydag
Testing at Stennis started in the 60's. I know they tested at Hunstville but I
thought Huntsville is where they did the Saturn V assembly.

[https://www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis/pdf/428016main_FS-2010-...](https://www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis/pdf/428016main_FS-2010-02-00087-SSC.pdf)

~~~
rootbear
Cool, I didn't know the Stennis site was that old. It looks like the F-1 was
tested at several facilities. I found the link below to a Library of Congress
document on the Huntsville site, which I'll have to read later.

[https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.al1331.sheet](https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.al1331.sheet)

~~~
larrydag
Actually Von Braun was probably mostly in Marshall FC but during the early
engine testing they said he was in Stennis a lot.

------
fouronnes3
The arstechnica article is much more detailed with many hd pictures:
[https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/06/behind-the-scenes-
at...](https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/06/behind-the-scenes-at-nasas-
newly-restored-historic-apollo-mission-control/)

~~~
breakingcups
Great pictures, but to get the best resolution you need navigate to photo
manually and use the download button.

For those who want all the pictures, I've put them in one archive here:
[https://we.tl/t-NSdjUDxwCn](https://we.tl/t-NSdjUDxwCn)

------
mmsimanga
Every time I see a story on mission control I always search for the ground
speed check story[0]. Probably one of my favourite pieces of writing and a
really cool story. Never fails to lift my mood. I particularly like how he
describes how air traffic controllers voices are modeled on the Housten Centre
voice.

[0] [https://oppositelock.kinja.com/favorite-
sr-71-story-10791270...](https://oppositelock.kinja.com/favorite-
sr-71-story-1079127041)

~~~
ElCapitanMarkla
I've read that a few times but had to read it again since you posted it. It's
a fantastic little piece of writing

------
rbanffy
I'm very curious about the LCD panels that replaced the CRTs in the consoles.
The information displays seem very nice for the time period and I'd love to
see any information on the original typography used. As I understand, most
screens are a static physical overlay over computer generated numbers on a
CRT, captured from that CRT by a camera and then broadcast to the control
consoles. My guess is that it was done like that because the computer didn't
have a character buffer and had to do beam racing to draw one line (or column,
like the IBM 2260) at a time and doing that saved memory for the labels.

[https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-
content/uploads/2019/06/misc-...](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-
content/uploads/2019/06/misc-screen-1440x960.jpg)

We can see two distinct fonts, and I assume the wide one is from the stencil
and the narrow one computer-generated, but the wide also has some telltale
signs of computer fonts if you look at the "A"s.

~~~
Animats
The original system was NTSC monochrome video. The screens were all
multiplexed as analog cable channels, and any display could access any screen.
Note the "TV Channel" number display to the upper right of the screen. Other
locations on site also had a cable connection and could view all the screens.

The system was built by Ford Aerospace. The same system was used at NORAD at
Cheyenne Mountain, and at the Blue Cube in Sunnyvale, the USAF control center
for their satellites. Into the mid 1980s, which was kind of embarrassing.

Setups where any station can view any screen are common in command and
control. Everybody can view the screen where the action is without hovering
over the person controlling that station.

~~~
Animats
The USAF really, really wanted large screen displays, and funded extensive
efforts to build them. Pre-computer, they had big manual plotting boards. Big
ones, the size of theater screens, with people on lifts updating them. There
was the Iconarama, essentially an Etch-A-Sketch hooked to a projector. There
was a scheme which drew on movie film with a CRT, developed the film in about
30 seconds, projected the film, and discarded it. This was updated very slowly
except during crises. There was Eidophor, used for at least one screen at
Apollo mission control. That's a good TV projection system, but high
maintenance, involving oil films in vacuum.[1] It's the only early system with
serious light output. Everything else was dim.

In my aerospace days, I once came across a USAF study with a history of all
the strange large screen displays the USAF had tried. For the Iconarama it
said "it is recommended that further systems of this type not be procured."

By the 1980s, projection TV tubes finally had enough light output to do large
screen displays.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidophor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidophor)

------
miobrien
For anyone interested in hearing more about the moon landing, check out this
BBC podcast: 13 Minutes to the Moon.

[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xttx2/episodes/downloads](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xttx2/episodes/downloads)

I’m on episode 3. So far there have been interviews with Steve Bales
(guidance), Gene Kranz (flight director), etc.

(It was recommended by someone else in another thread. Thanks to whoever that
was!)

~~~
jonny_eh
Includes interviews with Margaret Hamilton (she coined the term Software
Engineering) and Michael Collins (the third man on Apollo 11).

------
spodek
I've watched a few videos of Gene Kranz lately.

Inspiring leadership of a different sort than seen today. Very effective,
especially in the Apollo missions.

Plenty of them are online:
[https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gene+kranz&oq=&...](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gene+kranz&oq=&gs_l=)

~~~
sokoloff
He gave the keynote at Surge 2013 which was excellent. Excerpts are online
here:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKQK9BK2I_o&feature=youtu.be...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKQK9BK2I_o&feature=youtu.be&t=462)

------
peter303
I was saddened visiting various NASA space travel museums. They mostly bask in
accomplishments decades ago- moon landing, shuttle.

~~~
grahar64
The moon landing is an accomplishment that should be basked in for
generations.

------
cat199
> Now Kranz, 85, has completed another undertaking: the reopening of Mission
> Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

This article seems to imply that no mission control has been active in Houston
since 1992, which is not true - what has been reopened (really, renovated for
tours) is the 'historic', older mission control center used during the apollo
missions (MOCR2).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_C._Kraft_Jr._Missi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_C._Kraft_Jr._Mission_Control_Center)

------
cubano
I worked as a summer hire at KSC in 1987, and one of the things that stuck out
most in that experience was when they took all of us summer hires on a full
tour of the facility.

We got to walk besides the Crawler-Transporter 2 as it was moving to the
launch pad...that was awesome. Touring the VAB and taking a ride to the
top...amazing view. Same for the actual launch pad and them describing why the
lightning arrestors _had_ to be aligned perfectly to the N-S magnetic poles
(to maximize dissipation, of course).

The saddest part of the tour is when we went to the KSC version of the Apollo
control room and it was in total disrepair (this was 1988 remember). I
remember thinking "what a shame this looks like this..I don't get it", but
this was the time between the first Challenger explosion and overall, the
place wasn't at its best.

I think it's amazing that Gene led the restoration of the Johnson control
room...I just hope that people don't forget to do the same at KSC.

------
barking
In 1995 when Apollo 13 the movie came out, it felt like a very long time after
the actual events. The same length of time again has almost elapsed but 1995
seems not that long ago.

In 1995 I thought the real Gene Krantz, an old man so I'm amazed by how well
he looks today.

------
post_break
I have a friend who works at nasa. He took us into this room a about 7 years
ago and it was depressing. People were literally stealing stuff attached to
the control boards. Glad to see it restored.

------
augustusseizure
A couple weeks ago someone posted a link to a real time re-creation of the
apollo 11 mission. It's amazing watching videos of everyone in that room,
listening to the chatter on all the radio channels, and seeing pictures scroll
by from the moon, all in real-time. It does an amazing job bringing you behind
the curtains, almost like you're a part of the actual mission.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20193118](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20193118)

------
ryanmarsh
I saw this as a child (full of wonder) in the 1980's. It was still in active
use during the shuttle missions. I've always wanted my children to see it and
now that can.

------
kapilvt
Gene is awesome. I had a chance to watch him speak at SurgeCon 2013, there's
lots of lessons from dealing various mission crisis events that are still
applicable today to operation teams.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKQK9BK2I_o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKQK9BK2I_o)

[update] gene actually starts talking about 7:32m into that vid

------
totally
Kranz wrote a book about his experience in mission control which is a good
read:

[https://www.amazon.com/Failure-Not-Option-Mission-
Control/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/Failure-Not-Option-Mission-
Control/dp/1439148813)

------
celias
Houston We Have a Podcast has an episode about the restoration

[https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP/restoring-the-apollo-
miss...](https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP/restoring-the-apollo-mission-
control-center)

------
noir-york
"The room also brought back memories for Kranz of a shared sense of purpose.

"That group of people united in pursuit of a cause, and basically the result
was greater than the sum of the parts. There was a chemistry that was formed,"
Kranz said."

The Cold War undoubtedly helped, though my impression (I am not American) is
that there was a greater sense of social cohesion back then (that did not
include minorities).

Assuming social cohesion is a public good, i.e., public policy should help
bring it about without having to engineer a cold war, how would a society go
about it? National service?

~~~
justin66
> The Cold War undoubtedly helped, though my impression (I am not American) is
> that there was a greater sense of social cohesion back then (that did not
> include minorities).

Not to be dismissive, but... no. You're talking about the time of the Civil
Rights era and the Vietnam war. When you hear Americans talk about how utterly
divided these times are, keep in mind that, on the whole, we have no sense of
history and the attention span of a gnat.

~~~
mturmon
Just as an example, Gil Scott-Heron's critique: [https://genius.com/Gil-scott-
heron-whitey-on-the-moon-annota...](https://genius.com/Gil-scott-heron-whitey-
on-the-moon-annotated), or:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4)

------
NeonTiger1992
Would love to be able to go back to when this was bustling during the Apollo
missions. Just a fly on the wall watching it all unfold. Fascinating.

~~~
bookofjoe
Watch the new documentary "Apollo 11" — it's all that and more.

~~~
chha
Any links or pointers to where it can be found? There are just a _few_ Apollo
11 documentaries coming out this year it seems...

~~~
adventured
Amazon link: [https://www.amazon.com/Apollo-11-Todd-Douglas-
Miller/dp/B07R...](https://www.amazon.com/Apollo-11-Todd-Douglas-
Miller/dp/B07RDY2QF1/)

IMDB:
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8760684/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8760684/)

It's light on storytelling and heavy on fly on the wall presentation. The
footage is pretty great. You spend a lot of time in mission control.

------
ChuckMcM
This is pretty cool, does anyone know if there are online archives of drawings
for the various stations at mission control houston?

------
MR4D
Kranz was the Steve Jobs of his time for NASA.

Would be great to have another one someday at NASA.

