Quiz

Legendary flight director, aerospace consultant, and Director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston (January 1972 - August 1982).

As key flight controller position for all the Mercury missions and the first half of the Gemini program, Kraft made the final decision on whether a rocket would take off, what happened while the crew was in space and when they should come down.

In 1995, a review panel chaired by Dr. Kraft proposed that NASA's space shuttle program should eventually be transferred to the private sector as the best way to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

His right hand was accidentally burned in a fire when he was a child. This injury prevented him from enlisting in the military during WWII. He attended Virginia Tech, where he studied aeronautical engineering. He went to work at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) flight research division at Langley, Virginia. NACA became NASA in 1958.