The
Saturn V (pronounced "Saturn Five") was a
multistage liquid-fuel
expendable rocket used by
NASA for
Apollo and
Skylab missions between 1967 and 1972. In total NASA launched twelve Saturn V rockets, plus one derived
Saturn INT-21, with no loss of payload. It remains the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever brought to operational status, in terms of height, mass and
payload capacity. The Soviet
Energia, which flew two test missions in the late 1980s before being cancelled, had slightly more takeoff thrust.
The largest production model of the Saturn family of rockets, the Saturn V was designed under the direction of Wernher von Braun at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft Company, and IBM as the lead contractors. The three stages of the Saturn V were developed by various NASA contractors, but following a sequence of mergers and takeovers all of them are now owned by Boeing.
Christopher Columbus Kraft, Jr. (born February 28, 1924 in
Phoebus,
Virginia, died July 07, 2019 in
Houston, Texas) was a
NASA engineer and manager who was instrumental in establishing the agency's
Mission Control operation. Following his graduation from
Virginia Tech in 1944, Kraft was hired by the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor organization to the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He worked for over a decade in aeronautical research before being asked in 1958 to join the
Space Task Group, a small team entrusted with the responsibility of putting America's first man in space. Assigned to the flight operations division, Kraft became NASA's first
flight director. He was on duty during such historic missions as America's
first human spaceflight,
first human orbital flight, and
first spacewalk.
At the beginning of the Apollo program, Kraft retired as a flight director to concentrate on management and mission planning. In 1972, he became director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (later Johnson Space Center), following in the footsteps of his mentor Robert R. Gilruth. He held the position until his 1982 retirement from NASA. During his retirement, Kraft has consulted for numerous companies including IBM and Rockwell International, and he published an autobiography entitled Flight: My Life in Mission Control.
More than any other person, Kraft was responsible for shaping the organization and culture of NASA's Mission Control. As his protégé Glynn Lunney commented, "the Control Center today ... is a reflection of Chris Kraft." When Kraft received the National Space Trophy from the Rotary Club in 1999, the organization described him as "a driving force in the U.S. human space flight program from its beginnings to the Space Shuttle era, a man whose accomplishments have become legendary."
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