Nasa In His Sights Apollo 13 Hero Kranz Says Space Agency Must Roll Up Sleeves And ‘Take Charge’

NASA needs help, just like the Apollo 13 astronauts did nearly three decades ago, says the man who led the rescue.

“NASA needs an articulate administrator, someone who can effectively communicate the goals of the program to the public and get it interested in the program again,” Gene Kranz said.

“That isn’t there right now.”

Kranz, flight director for Apollo 13, spoke Tuesday night at Eastern Washington University’s Showalter Hall.

The failure of the spaceship’s oxygen system in April 1970 had people around the world holding their breath. The three astronauts, guided by Kranz and others at Mission Control in Houston, managed to improvise repairs and return safely to Earth, aborting a planned moon landing.

The story became a major movie two years ago, starring Ed Harris as Kranz.

Kranz’s visited the Cheney campus as part of a speaker series called “Opening Doors to the 21st Century.”

The 63-year-old Kranz retired from NASA in 1994 and is now writing a motivational book.

He told reporters Tuesday that the agency has lost some of the spirit it had when the space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union was at its zenith.

The space program’s decline, he said, was chillingly evident in the aftermath of the space shuttle tragedy on Jan. 28, 1986. Challenger, 73 seconds into its flight, erupted into a ball of flame, killing six astronauts and a school teacher.

“We had many directors positions that were vacant and filled in by interim people at that time,” Kranz said.

“We did not have anyone step forward, take charge and say, ‘This is where we’re going to go from here.”’

By contrast, after the Apollo 1 disaster killed three astronauts in 1968, space administration officials rolled up their sleeves and went to work.

“There was immediate leadership, and we were back on track 10 months after that accident,” Kranz said.

Kranz credits NASA for recent discoveries in our own galaxy, but he believes space exploration is in a holding pattern.

Late last year, NASA scientists discovered ice on the moon, fossils on Mars and slushy water on Europa, one of Jupiter’s major moons.

But with a trimmed budget, NASA has to figure out where to go and what to ignore.

Kranz said NASA created “an entire generation of computer nerds” in the ‘60s, many of whom were experts in math, science, chemistry and physics. He said their accomplishments fueled America’s research and development machine.

The former Soviet Union is no longer the political power it once was, but Kranz said that doesn’t mean America can rest on past achievements in space.

“We have forged stronger relationships with Japan, Canada, Europe and the Russians as a result of space exploration,” he said.

“Space has a political dimension to it that cannot be ignored.”

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