{"id":17991,"date":"2019-07-17T01:34:54","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T17:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/50-years-after-apollo-11-unsung-heroes-of-mission-control-ponder-past-and-future-of-the-final-frontier\/"},"modified":"2019-07-17T01:34:54","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T17:34:54","slug":"50-years-after-apollo-11-unsung-heroes-of-mission-control-ponder-past-and-future-of-the-final-frontier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/50-years-after-apollo-11-unsung-heroes-of-mission-control-ponder-past-and-future-of-the-final-frontier\/","title":{"rendered":"50 years after Apollo 11, unsung heroes of Mission Control ponder past and future of the final frontier"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Flight
Flight directors are on duty at NASA\u2019s Mission Control Center during the Apollo 10 mission in May 1969. Gerry Griffin is seated in the foreground, Glynn Lunney is seated to his right, and Milt Windler is standing behind them. Chris Kraft, director of flight operations, is standing in the background. (NASA Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

[Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong> This episode of the GeekWire Podcast is part of the Destination Moon podcrawl, organized by Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight. Look for other episodes about the Apollo 11 50th Anniversary in the coming days from other participating podcasts: Flight Deck from the Museum of Flight; Sound Effect from KNKX Radio; The Truth from Radiotopia; and Stuff You Missed in History Class.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Fifty years ago, it took a special kind of person to work in NASA\u2019s Apollo Mission Control: Take Gerry Griffin and Milt Windler, for example.<\/p>\n

Both men got their degrees in aeronautical engineering and became jet fighter pilots \u2014 but when NASA needed flight controllers for the space race against the Soviets, they answered the call and traded their cockpits for control panels. Both were elevated to flight director roles in the wake of the Apollo 1 fire, which killed three astronauts in 1967. There was one key requirement for the job: winning the approval of Chris Kraft, director of flight operations at Mission Control in Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris Kraft decided he needed more flight directors to make it to Apollo, and in those days, if Chris wanted you to be a flight director, you were a flight director,\u201d Griffin said during a recent stopover at Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight. \u201cNowadays you have to go through a certification process. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably wouldn\u2019t have made the cut,\u201d Windler joked.<\/p>\n