Chris Kraft death: Apollo 11 director dies two days after moon landing anniversary

NASA’s first flight director has died aged aged 95, two days after the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing.

Chris Kraft joined the US space agency in 1958 before going on to set up NASA’s Mission Control.

Under his guidance, NASA planned and managed America’s first manned space flight, followed by the Apollo missions to the moon.

"America has truly lost a national treasure today with the passing of one of NASA's earliest pioneers - flight director Chris Kraft," NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said in a statement.

In this 1981 photo, President Ronald Reagan (centre) is briefed by Mr Kraft (right) at the Johnson Space Center in Houston
AP

"Chris was one of the core team members that helped our nation put humans in space and on the Moon, and his legacy is immeasurable.

“We send our deepest condolences to the Kraft family.”

Mr Kraft died in Houston, Texas, on Monday, according to CNN. No other information about the circumstances has yet been released.

Mr Kraft died just two days after the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing
AP

Christopher Columbus Kraft was born on February 28, 1924, in Phoebus, Virginia and went on to study mechanical engineering at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, now known as Virginia Tech.

He then specialised in aeronautical engineering and graduated in 1944.

Six years later he married his high school sweetheart Betty Anne Turnbull. The couple had a son, called Gordon and a daughter called Kristi-Anne.

During the Apollo programme, Chris Kraft was responsible for overall human spaceflight mission planning, training and execution
AP

In November 1958, he joined NASA's Space Task Group as the agency's first flight director.

"He personally invented the mission planning and control processes required for crewed space missions, in areas as diverse as go/no-go decisions, space-to-ground communications, space tracking, real-time problem solving and crew recovery," NASA said in a statement.

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In 2001 he published his autobiography which became a New York Times bestseller – Flight: My Life in Mission Control."

He received many awards and honors for his work, including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal and four NASA Distinguished Service Medals.

In 1999, he was presented with the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement, for which he was described as "a driving force in the US human space-flight program from its beginnings to the Space Shuttle era, a man whose accomplishments have become legendary."

In 2011, NASA named one of its Johnson Space Center buildings the ‘Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., Mission Control Center’, in his honour.

In its tribute to Mr Kraft released on Monday, NASA quoted from his autobiography: “Scientists say there is no life on the moon. I look at the moon today, see the faces from NASA, industry, science and academe who brilliantly sent Americans to that place, and I know differently.

“The people of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo are blossoms on the moon. Their spirits will live there forever.

“I was part of the crowd, then part of leadership that opened space travel to human beings. We threw a narrow flash of light across our nation’s history. I was there at the best of times."

Continuing his tribute to the NASA legend, Mr Bridenstine said: "We stand on his shoulders as we reach deeper into the solar system, and he will always be with us on those journeys."

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