RIP Christopher Columbus Kraft, NASA’s legendary flight director, has died

[armchairfan]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/07/christiopher-columbus-kraft-nasas-legendary-flight-director-has-died/

(I didn't see a thread for this.)

Edit: Here it is: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=48631.0

Though it no doubt pales in light of his legendary past achievements, I hope that living to see the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing eased his passing.

[VDD1991]

What a coincidence that Kraft passed away half a century after the Apollo spacecraft he helped engineer landed the first men on the moon.

[DecoLV]

(If I missed an existing thread for this, mods, please reconfig...)

NASA has announced that Christopher C. Kraft, NASA's first flight director, passed away yesterday. His death comes 50 years after the Apollo 11 mission, the first to land men on the moon, headed for earth just a day before splashdown.

An original member of the Space Task Group, Craft invented the concept of Mission Control as we know it, and created the procedures for Mercury and Gemini as a flight director. He was promoted to head of flight operations for Apollo and went on to become the head of JSC. The building at JSC from which the missions were controlled - Building 30 - already carries his name.

I think we should take a big moment to salute this man, who made a whole lot of NASA possible.