Flight Directors

The words

1. Black Team

   Glynn Lunney led the Black Team, one of NASA’s flight-control shifts. During Apollo 13, his controllers helped move crew operations into the lunar module after the oxygen-tank explosion.

   NASA: Glynn Lunney and Black Flight (opens a new tab)

2. Charlesworth

   Clifford Charlesworth led the Green Team during Apollo 11’s first Moonwalk. His controllers monitored the astronauts’ suits, communications and surface tasks while Armstrong and Aldrin worked outside Eagle.

   Apollo 11 transcript: Charlesworth’s team (opens a new tab)

3. Chuck Lewis

   Charles Lewis led American flight-control specialists sent to Moscow for Apollo-Soyuz in July 1975. His delegation included spacecraft-systems and trajectory specialists, a capsule communicator and interpreters.

   NASA history: Lewis’s Moscow delegation (opens a new tab)

4. Don Puddy

   Don Puddy directed Skylab’s launch-control team in 1973. After the station was damaged during ascent, his controllers worked to keep it operating while planners assessed its condition and possible repairs.

   NASA oral history: Shaffer and Skylab (opens a new tab)

5. Gerry Griffin

   Gerald “Gerry” Griffin helped direct Apollo 13 from Houston. He worked alongside Lunney, Kranz and Windler in the team that guided the crew home after the oxygen-tank explosion.

   Did you know?

   On April 18, 1970, Griffin and fellow flight directors accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom on behalf of the Mission Operations Team. The honor recognized the wider group’s work.

   NASA: Apollo 13’s mission operations team (opens a new tab)

6. Go-No-Go

   Before Apollo 11’s powered descent, Kranz asked his controllers for a Go/No-Go readiness decision. Each specialist assessed a particular area before Mission Control told the crew to proceed.

   Apollo 11 journal: the readiness poll (opens a new tab)

7. Gold Team

   Gerry Griffin’s flight-control shift was the Gold Team. In a NASA interview, he recalled concentrating on Apollo 13’s crew supplies while Lunney’s team studied possible return paths.

   NASA interview: Griffin’s Gold Team (opens a new tab)

8. Hutchinson

   Neil Hutchinson served as Skylab 4’s lead flight director. He later acknowledged that the ground team learned important lessons about scheduling work as the astronauts adjusted to a long mission.

   NASA: Hutchinson and Skylab 4’s schedule (opens a new tab)

9. John Hodge

   John Hodge became Chris Kraft’s deputy and NASA’s second flight director for Mercury 9 in 1963. He later helped direct Gemini 4 from the new Houston Mission Control center.

   NASA: Hodge, Kranz and the Houston center (opens a new tab)

10. Kranz

    Gene Kranz served as assistant flight director during Mercury’s final three missions. For Gemini 4 in 1965, he joined Kraft and Hodge as one of the mission’s three flight directors.

    NASA: Hodge, Kranz and the Houston center (opens a new tab)

11. Milt Windler

    In his NASA oral history, Shaffer credited Milt Windler with establishing Skylab’s planning cycle. Separate planning and operations shifts helped turn scientific objectives into work the astronauts could carry out.

    NASA oral history: Shaffer and Skylab (opens a new tab)

12. Pete Frank

    Pete Frank directed Houston’s control team during Apollo’s launch for Apollo-Soyuz on July 15, 1975. His controllers took over monitoring the mission once the rocket cleared the launch tower.

    NASA: Pete Frank and Apollo-Soyuz’s launch (opens a new tab)

13. Phil Shaffer

    Phil Shaffer handled launch, rendezvous and return operations for all three crewed Skylab visits. He also worked an orbital shift, using different controller teams for spacecraft maneuvers and station experiments.

    Did you know?

    Shaffer recalled colleagues asking which hat he was wearing. He held several responsibilities at once, so an answer from their manager could differ from one from the flight director.

    NASA oral history: Shaffer and Skylab (opens a new tab)

14. White Vest

    Marta Kranz sewed Gene’s white mission vests to match his White Team. Beginning with Gemini 4, the clothing became a recognizable part of his work at the flight-director console.

    Did you know?

    At a 2005 Smithsonian lecture, an audience member asked when the museum would receive a vest. Kranz’s reply helped turn a proposed loan into a donation.

    Smithsonian: Marta Kranz’s mission vests (opens a new tab)

15. Yeliseyev

    Aleksey Yeliseyev served as the Soviet flight director for Apollo-Soyuz. A former cosmonaut, he helped brief the American astronauts on Mission Control’s console positions before the flight.

    NASA: Yeliseyev at Soviet mission control (opens a new tab)