Keynote Speaker

Gene Kranz

Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond
Monday, August 29th - 8:00 am - 10:00 am
As the leader of the “Tiger Team” of flight directors who brought the Apollo 13 spaceship safely back to Earth on April 17, 1970, Gene Kranz demonstrated extraordinary courage and heroism.

The legendary NASA flight controller who uttered “failure is not an option”, will discuss his New York Times best-selling memoir, Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond.

It was Kranz’s commitment to success—the origins of “failure is not an option”—that guided that first “return to flight” in the late 1960s with Apollo, leading to the success of Apollo 11 and also the rescue of Apollo 13. It was the teamwork that had been forged in mission control over the years that helped make that rescue possible. He will recall an effort during one phase of the rescue to put the spacecraft into a “barbecue roll” to ensure the spacecraft was evenly heated by the Sun. The effort required close coordination of the mission controllers, who had to step through the process again when an initial effort to put the spacecraft into the roll failed. 

This keynote speaker will leave you with ‘goose bumps’ after he describes his harrowing day over 30 years ago. 'Failure is not an option’ – that’s how you will describe this fearsome and talented man. This will be a Keynote NOT TO BE MISSED!

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