Project Gemini was
NASA's second
human spaceflight program. It was a
United States space program started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. Project Gemini was conducted between projects
Mercury and
Apollo. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten crews flew
low Earth orbit (LEO) missions between 1965 and 1966. It put the United States in the lead during the
Cold War Space Race with the
Soviet Union.
Its objective was to develop space travel techniques to support Apollo's mission to land astronauts on the Moon. Gemini achieved missions long enough for a trip to the Moon and back, perfected working outside the spacecraft with extra-vehicular activity (EVA), and pioneered the orbital maneuvers necessary to achieve space rendezvous and docking. With these new techniques proven in Gemini, Apollo could pursue its prime mission without doing these fundamental exploratory operations.
The astronaut corps that supported Project Gemini included the "Mercury Seven", "The New Nine", and the 1963 astronaut class. During the program, three astronauts died in air crashes during training, including the prime crew for Gemini 9. This mission was performed by the backup crew, the only time that had happened in NASA's history to that date.
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."
