Tough and Confident: Leadership and Team Chemistry by Eugene Kranz
We’re honored to have gotten a chance to talk with Eugene Kranz, former Director of Mission Operations at NASA and the man responsible for returning the Apollo 13 to safety. Check out what he has to say about his new book Tough and Confident: Leadership and Team Chemistry (Gatekeeper Press), which helps teach the leadership and teamwork principles that made the team at NASA work as one.
NASA veteran Eugene “Gene” Kranz is best known as leader of the “Tiger Team” flight controllers who returned the damaged Apollo 13 spaceship safely back to Earth on April 17, 1970. He was portrayed by Ed Harris in the 1995 movie “Apollo 13.”
Born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, Kranz holds a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Parks College of Saint Louis University and served in the U.S. Air Force as a fighter pilot and a flight test engineer before joining NASA in 1960. He assumed Flight Director duties for the Project Gemini and Apollo missions, including leading the controller team for America’s first lunar landing during Apollo 11 in 1969. In 1983, Kranz assumed NASA Director of Mission Operations overseeing a workforce of over 5,000. After serving in Mission Control for over 100 launches and effectively overseeing the complete arc of U.S. manned space missions, Kranz retired in 1994 turning to motivational speaking and writing. His book on the early manned space program, Failure Is Not an Option, was a New York Times bestseller and adapted as a 2004 History Channel documentary on Mission Control.
Kranz received numerous awards, including the National Space Trophy, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and he is enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame. His alma mater, Central Catholic in Toledo, displays his NASA Ambassador of Exploration Award alongside other personal NASA mementos. In 2021, the city of Toledo honored its native son when it renamed its airport in honor of Kranz. A Texan for over five decades, Mr. Kranz and his wife Marta are the proud parents of six children.
