Gene Kranz Quotes

A collection of quotes by Gene Kranz.

Gene Kranz is a renowned American aerospace engineer and former NASA flight director, known for his crucial role in the Apollo space program. Born on August 17, 1933, in Toledo, Ohio, Kranz attended Saint Francis de Sales High School before earning his bachelorâ€™s degree in aeronautical engineering from Parks College of Saint Louis University.

Kranz joined NASA in 1960, becoming a key figure in shaping the nation's space exploration efforts. He played a pivotal role in the Mercury and Gemini missions, serving as a flight director for various spaceflights. However, he is most famous for his leadership during the Apollo program, specifically the Apollo 13 mission in 1970.

When Apollo 13 experienced a catastrophic oxygen tank failure 200,000 miles from Earth, putting the astronauts' lives in grave danger, Kranz was at the forefront of guiding the team in their efforts to safely bring the crew back home. His famous phrase, "Failure is not an option," has become synonymous with his dedication and determination to solve problems in the face of adversity.

After a successful career at NASA spanning over three decades, Kranz retired in 1994. His contributions and involvement in the space program continue to inspire generations of engineers and astronauts. Today, he remains an esteemed figure in the aerospace industry, earning numerous accolades, including induction into the International Space Hall of Fame and the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

It was as easy as breathing to go and have tea near the place where Jane Austen had so wittily scribbled and so painfully died. One of the things that causes some critics to marvel at Miss Austen is the laconic way in which, as a daughter of the epoch that saw the Napoleonic Wars, she contrives like a Greek dramatist to keep it off the stage while she concentrates on the human factor. I think this comes close to affectation on the part of some of her admirers. Captain Frederick Wentworth in , for example, is partly of interest to the female sex because of the 'prize' loot he has extracted from his encounters with Bonaparte's navy. Still, as one born after Hiroshima I can testify that a small Hampshire township, however large the number of names of the fallen on its village-green war memorial, is more than a world away from any unpleasantness on the European mainland or the high or narrow seas that lie between. (I used to love the detail that Hampshire's 'New Forest' is so called because it was only planted for the hunt in the late eleventh century.) I remember watching with my father and brother through the fence of Stanstead House, the Sussex mansion of the Earl of Bessborough, one evening in the early 1960s, and seeing an immense golden meadow carpeted entirely by grazing rabbits. I'll never keep that quiet, or be that still, again.This was around the time of countrywide protest against the introduction of a horrible laboratory-confected disease, named 'myxomatosis,' into the warrens of old England to keep down the number of nibbling rodents. Richard Adams's lapine masterpiece is the remarkable work that it is, not merely because it evokes the world of hedgerows and chalk-downs and streams and spinneys better than anything since , but because it is only really possible to imagine gassing and massacre and organized cruelty on this ancient and green and gently rounded landscape if it is organized and carried out against herbivores.

Christopher Hitchens

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