ORLANDO, Fla. — On the heels of the 50th anniversary of the historic moon landing, a man credited with building NASA's early efforts to get there, has passed away.
- NASA's first flight director, Christopher Kraft, died on Monday
- Engineer: "A national asset"
- Kraft invented steps from mission planning to crew communications
Christopher Kraft died Monday, just two days after the milestone.
Spectrum News 13 spoke to one man who said that the space legend was someone who 'set up his team to succeed'.
"The work ethic, the discipline," said engineer Bob Sieck, recalling 1964 when he joined NASA at the Kennedy Space Center.
Sieck began working under Christopher Kraft, the man credited with the concept and operations of the then "Manned Spacecraft Operations Center" in the early days of America's space program.
He remembers an important thing that Kraft told his team as they worked toward the moon mission.
"You are a national asset on a government mission," said Sieck.
"It was like being in the military without a uniform. That was his approach to the flight team," he continued.
Kraft grew up near Langley, Virginia, just a couple miles from the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, NASA's predecessor.
He eventually found his way to the NASA Space Task Group in 1958 and became the space agency's first Flight Director.
"He always had the goal in mind, it's not about me, it's about this team," said Sieck. "So set them up to succeed."
NASA said Kraft invented steps from mission planning to go-no-go decisions and crew communications.
When you heard "Flight" during early missions, the team was talking to him as he commanded the mission.
"I'm sure if he could reminisce on his career, he would say 'boy, I was in the right place at the right time,'" Sieck said. "And had a heck of a lot of fun".
Kraft was honored by NASA with the Ambassador of Exploration Award in 2006, presented to astronauts and people who worked in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Programs.
