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The Story Behind Gene Kranz's Vest
Listen to a short lecture given by curator Margaret Weitekamp on Gene Kranz career with NASA and how his vest ended up at the Smithsonian (13:36)
Courtesy of: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
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Gene Kranz's Apollo Vest
NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz famously wore a homemade white vest as he averted tragedy during the Apollo 13 mission
April 2010 |
By Owen Edwards
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Comments (5)
Thank you, Ms. Weitekamp. I greatly enjoyed the presentation - learning many things about the NASA missions and the story of this article of clothing. Glad the story wasn't kept close to the vest.
Posted by Joe Michaels on December 10,2012 | 12:50 AM
I very much enjoyed the video about Gene Kranz. The Apollo 11 Mission was a coming of age event for my wife and I. We bought our first color TV so we could watch the moon landing. I've watch the Apollo 13 movie numerous time. I don't think we were aware just how serious the accident was until seeing the depiction in the movie. Thank God for team members like Gene Kranz and all the Apollo Mission Control Personnel. Well Done hardly seems enough.
Posted by Henry K. Tanton on January 10,2011 | 03:24 PM
Very informative and colorful - thank you!
Posted by J. Liadis on June 14,2010 | 09:18 PM
A couple of small correction to Owen Edwards' story -- faille is a finely *ribbed* fabric, and the common fibers are silk, cotton and rayon. Satin, mentioned in the story as a fiber, is actually a weave, not a fiber.
I missed the original television coverage of Apollo 13: my high school physics class was actually at the launch, and I was filming with my father's wind-up 8mm movie camera. It was a very quiet bus ride back to Iowa, with only occasional radio updates, while we waited to hear more news.
I hope you'll continue to do more stories about the space programs, as much of the "institutional memory" is lost with retirement. Has anyone interviewed the engineers who sat on the floor with pieces of the equipment,figuring out just how much duct tape of what width would be required to rejigger the equipment on Apollo 13?
Posted by Kay Lancaster on May 10,2010 | 02:57 PM
Thank you for the narrated short lecture given by curator Margaret Weitekamp at the Smithsonian Magazine Web site.
I lost my Mother a month ago but hearing this story reminds me of how she let me play hooky from school to stay home and watch t.v. coverage of many of America's spaceflights from Mercury right on through Gemini. Thanks to my Mom, I learned the fundamentals of how our space program strategy were designed and tested.
Despite the failure to land on the moon, Apollo 13 was one of our proudest accomplishments in space because of men like Gene Kranz and many others just like him. I am thankful for your detailed story which brought fond past memories to mind.
Posted by David Cochran on April 13,2010 | 07:16 PM