Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. was an American aerospace and NASA engineer who was instrumental in establishing the agency's Mission Control Center and shaping its organization and culture. His protégé Glynn Lunney said in 1998: "the Control Center today ... is a reflection of Chris Kraft".
Kraft as director of Johnson Space Center in 1979
Mission Control Center as it was during Project Mercury
Kraft works at his console inside the Flight Control area of the Mercury Control Center.
Chris Kraft (seated) confers with Walt Williams and others during Mercury-Atlas 9.
Glynn Stephen Lunney was an American NASA engineer. An employee of NASA since its creation in 1958, Lunney was a flight director during the Gemini and Apollo programs, and was on duty during historic events such as the Apollo 11 lunar ascent and the pivotal hours of the Apollo 13 crisis. At the end of the Apollo program, he became manager of the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, the first collaboration in spaceflight between the United States and the Soviet Union. Later, he served as manager of the Space Shuttle program before leaving NASA in 1985 and later becoming a vice president of the United Space Alliance.
Glynn Lunney in 1974, as manager of the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project
Lunney (top left) with John Hodge and Jones Roach during Gemini 3
Standing at the flight director's console, viewing the Gemini 10 flight display in the Mission Control Center. Left to right: William C. Schneider, Glynn Lunney, Christopher C. Kraft Jr. and Charles W. Mathews.
Discussion in the Mission Operations Control Room during the Apollo 13 mission between Lunney (center) and astronauts James McDivitt and Deke Slayton