Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Dr. Christopher Columbus Kraft, who served as NASA's first flight director and one of the agency's preeminent leaders. Kraft passed away on July 22, 2019, at the impressive age of 95 years old and only 2 days after the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. It is impossible to overstate the vital role that Kraft played in the formative years of NASA. After graduating from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1944 with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering, Dr. Kraft started work at NASA's precursor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics; and toward the onset of the space race in 1958, President Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and tasked Project Mercury with getting America into space and putting a man into orbit. During this time, Kraft essentially created the entire concept of mission control and successfully directed all six crewed Mercury missions, including those that made Alan Shepard the first American in space and John Glenn the first American in orbit. In Project Gemini, Kraft was promoted to the head of mission operations. Now in charge of a team of flight directors, he served ``on console'' during many historic moments, including Ed White's first spacewalk in Gemini 4. Achieving all of this proved to the country and the rest of the world that America could succeed in space, and certainly set the stage for the Apollo missions to the Moon.…”