Kraft, Chris. Flight: my life in mission control.Plume. 371p. illus. index. c2001. 0-452-28304-3. $14.00. SA * During the early years of the Space Age, Chris Kraft's name was probably better known than that of the U.S. president. All through the '60s and '70s, it was Kraft who delivered the latest news of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions to an excited world. For those who have thought of Kraft as a public relations spokesman for NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. , this book will be an eye-opener. Christopher Columbus Kraft was a fresh and untried aeronautical engineer when he started working for the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA NACA National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics NACA Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific NACA National Action Committee on AIDS (Nigeria) NACA National Advisory Council on Aging NACA National Association of Consumer Advocates ) in 1945. After several years designing test programs for the new jet fighters, the Soviet Union lofted Sputnik Sputnik: see satellite, artificial; space exploration. Sputnik Any of a series of Earth-orbiting spacecraft whose launching by the Soviet Union inaugurated the space age. and his world was never the same again. The nation set out on a scientific renaissance, NACA morphed into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space exploration, artificial satellites (see satellite, artificial), , and Kraft found himself NASA's flight director for America's first trips into space. Both Kraft and NASA were total novices when they began to develop the new technologies and put together the interlocking interlocking /in·ter·lock·ing/ (-lok´ing) closely joined, as by hooks or dovetails; locking into one another. interlocking Obstetrics A rare complication of vaginal delivery of twins; the 1st programs necessary to launch a human on a brief sub-orbital flight. They did so in a very short time, and put Neil Armstrong onto the Moon a scant 12 years later. This is, quite simply, the best autobiography to come out of the space program. Kraft is an interesting person, first of all, and he does a fine job of explaining the complicated aerospace equipment and experiments. He is meticulous with his facts, as you might expect an engineer to be, but never lets the story bog down in esoteric detail. Possibly the best part of the book is his description of the amazingly complex planning and coordination efforts that were necessary before the first missile could ever leave the pad. There is also a strong "people" element throughout the book, with lifelike personality sketches of the astronauts and aerospace experts. Kraft freely describes the inevitable frustrations and personality clashes that went on behind the scenes, and isn't afraid to name names. The result is the first really full-dimensional story of America's historic first space missions. Highly recommended to public and school collections. Raymond L. Puffer puffer, common name for some tropical marine fish of the family Tetraodontidae. The puffers and their allies, the boxfish, the porcupinefish, and the ocean sunfish or headfish, form an odd group (order Tetraodontiformes). , Ph.D., Historian, Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. , CA |
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