Christopher C. Kraft, Jr.

Christopher C. Kraft, Jr received a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic University in 1944 and joined NACA in 1945. In 1958,  he became a member of the Space Task Group developing Project Mercury and moved with the Group to Houston in 1962. He was flight director for Mercury and many of the Gemini missions and designed Mission Control at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), redesignated the Johnson Space Center in 1973. He was named the MSC deputy director in 1970 and director in 1972, a position he held until his retirement in 1982.

Dr. Rober R. Gilruth (right), Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) Director, sits with Dr. Christopher C. Kraft Jr., MSC Director of Flight Operations, at his flight operations director console in the Mission Control Center, bldg 30, during the Apollo 5 (LM-1/Saturn 204) unmanned space mission launch.

Sources

NASA's biography of Kraft

NASA's images depository, GRIN

Kraft's memoirs, Flight: My life in Mission Control

-- A.B., Jan 2002