This interview is a national treasure with a genuine national hero. I know that Ken Mattingly felt strongly that Lunney was of utmost importance in getting Apollo 13 back, and listening to the tapes, he was magnificent on the console. I’ve always admired his competence and humility: he’s definitely one of the giants of spaceflight.
If you listen to the tapes, it's clear that the main burden fell on Lunney very early and he was magnificent. Lunney's team had to make a lot of irreversible decisions in short timeframes under extreme pressure that turned out to be correct.
Lunney had, what was probably the Quickest Mind in Flight Control. He certainly was pivotal in the outcome of Apollo 13. He didn't get any recognition in Howard's Apollo 13(1995), which he damn well should have. Too many People think it was only Gene Krantz in Mission Control bringing 13 back. In one of the Clips of him in the seat, show him rolling his Eyes, as he was given more Bad News. Talk about what was at the time, almost a No Win situation
I was born in 1957 and would lay in the snow in my front yard in Lutherville, Md in the 60's and look up at the night sky and be all inspired to go into space... We now live in Clear Lake, TX in the shadow of NASA, (since 1986). It is fascinating to listen to the experts of the space program...
I imagine he would have been a great boss to work for I had little patience for meetings that drug on and on with all manner of Bullsquat that had nothing to do with the job at hand. A hero in the fullest sense
Gene Kranz’s team often gets a lot of the credit for figuring out how to get Apollo 13 back home, but I had not realized how much the other flight teams contributed as well. These guys were the best.
After one hour Kranz+team left to organise the backrooms and get a plan for the long term. All the critical parts after the incident were managed by Glynn Lunney and his black team. without such a plan. This shift had to improvise a lot of things very quickly without making this one fatal mistake. Including all the powering down and up and moving to the LM, getting on free return, getting a ptc. In what was arguably the most challenging shift in it's history. The movie giving him no credit is a big shame. But whoever and whatever, no team or flight director works alone. There is are big backroom staff and Windler, Griffin and Kranz came in and out, as did a lot of other people. Like astronauts coming from the simulator, advising the flight director. In these first hours mainly Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan. And i never understood how Movie(!)Kranz got so much praise anyway. I think he (again, not the real one!) is an absolute horrible flight director. He only barks at people, he shoots ideas down without listening. And his answer to problems is "i don't care, figure it out". That is not how Kranz or any FD works. The flight director audio for the first hours is on youtube. And apollo in realtime (google) has all the mission and all the audio from all the mission control channels. Which is a bit of an information overload. For apollo 11 and 13. And some interesting post-shift press conferences with all the flight directors.
Absolutely. Glynn's team handled everything from power down, guidance transfer, getting back on free-return, and so on. That team was very critical in getting that ship home. There are 4 videos on CZcams, the flight director loop, from end or the TV broadcast up to getting on free-return. It's absolutely fascinating.
@@HistoricSpaceStuff Listening to the flight director loops is extraordinary. The difference in management styles between Kranz and Lunney is interesting, but it is very clear that they both lead their teams from the front. The sheer weight of critical information that Lunney had to handle during the 13 crisis is mind boggling. The fact that they got home suggests he made all the right calls in that incredibly tense few hours.
Agreed. Here czcams.com/video/OwE1jEfzI-A/video.htmlh07m08s is the flight director loop precisely when Lunney comes on shift during the incident, and you can hear him immediately start kicking butt for 8 hours. Here czcams.com/video/usjsgmaQF_k/video.html is his press conference following the shift, which really shows how on top of things he was and his state of mind-not worrying about what went wrong, but what to do about it. Wonderful that we have these recordings of these historical moments.
@@HistoricSpaceStuff It's the nature of movies. You have two hours to put across a story, so they can only concentrate on a handful of "characters". Kranz was a more picturesque character than Lunney. Even the way he looked was more like what the public would expect of a flight director. Lunney looked more like a high school science teacher, while Kranz had the crew cut and was better at turning a movie-friendly phrase that could be put into a script. For the movie, they wanted John Wayne from "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" as the flight director, and that's how they wrote the part. Another example is Jim Lovell. As a kid who followed the space program from Apollo 7 (I was 8 years old at that time), I was familiar with the public persona of Jim Lovell for most of my life. I'd seen him on television what must have been a hundred times in interviews and commentaries from the time I was about 8 years old until the movie came out 25 years later, but in the movie, the Jim Lovell character was just your generic action movie hero, no different than the hero of a thousand other movies. There was nothing about this character that distinguished him as Jim Lovell the individual we'd known since the 1960's. That's just Hollywood, where everything has to be simplified and dumbed-down.
To really understand what a Titan this man was, listen to the Apollo 13 tapes. This man was 2 steps ahead of his controllers.Enourmous RESPECT to the BEST FLIGHT CONTROLLER EVER. RIP.
It's always amazing how crude mission control and nasa were in the early mercury days. Getting the crews for the tracking station in place was sometimes an adventure. Gene Kranz whos book is a hell of a lot more informative than the movie writes about that in detail. One time a station in africa was basically under siege, while they were talking to the spaceraft overhead.
My only “issue” with his comments is that today NASA Mgmnt is so risk averse it’s not beyond the sense that if the present day group was in charge then we never would have made it to the Moon.
I think Kranz and Lunney worked the basic strategy for Apollo 13. Kranz could pull his team off console as a Tiger Team due, I expect, in large part in the respect and trust Kranz had in Lunney and his team. I'm not sure why many seem to need to 'rank' people during a crisis like Apollo 13. Naturally, the leaders of a team are the visible point persons, but the true success is truly a team one, the ENTIRE flight control team. Too often, in many undertakings, perhaps for brevity, one person is lauded for the accomplishments of all. It is false legend building. Yes, many of these managers made critical decisions, but these were only possible due to input and advice of many others. Far too often this is forgotten for the reader's convenience ... a lazy reason.
Don’t forget: it was a Christian nation that went to the moon. Even for the nonbelievers, the culture that Christianity helped to make was key to advancing the civilization that was able to go to the moon.
How can these videos only have 6.9K views? This stuff is legendary!
Because we live in the age of tiktok, twitter etc. Most people now days find it difficult to concentrate for more than a minute on a subject.
This interview is a national treasure with a genuine national hero. I know that Ken Mattingly felt strongly that Lunney was of utmost importance in getting Apollo 13 back, and listening to the tapes, he was magnificent on the console. I’ve always admired his competence and humility: he’s definitely one of the giants of spaceflight.
How about Clifford Charlesworth, Gerry Griffin, Milton Windler, and Pete Frank?
@@powerfulstrong5673 Did I speak badly of any of the other Flight Directors? No, I didn’t. This was not their interview.
If you listen to the tapes, it's clear that the main burden fell on Lunney very early and he was magnificent. Lunney's team had to make a lot of irreversible decisions in short timeframes under extreme pressure that turned out to be correct.
Impossible to find a Cliff Charlesworth interview…
Glynn Lunney was one of the titans of the early US space program. Rest in peace, Glynn.
Lunney had, what was probably the Quickest Mind in Flight Control. He certainly was pivotal in the outcome of Apollo 13. He didn't get any recognition in Howard's Apollo 13(1995), which he damn well should have. Too many People think it was only Gene Krantz in Mission Control bringing 13 back. In one of the Clips of him in the seat, show him rolling his Eyes, as he was given more Bad News. Talk about what was at the time, almost a No Win situation
I found out Lunney passed away in March this year. R.I.P.
One of the titans of early space flight. Rest in peace.
So sad to hear. Rest in peace.
Love watching all these interviews. As a chiId of the 80's, I was obsessed with NASA.
So cool to hear all this now
I was born in 1957 and would lay in the snow in my front yard in Lutherville, Md in the 60's and look up at the night sky and be all inspired to go into space... We now live in Clear Lake, TX in the shadow of NASA, (since 1986). It is fascinating to listen to the experts of the space program...
Had the pleasure of being very good friends with Glynn’s cousin. He had many fun stories of Glynn and him during their youths.
The intelligence of this man is most impressive.
If I had ever had a Chance to meet a Flight Director, My Choice would have been Lunney. RIP
I imagine he would have been a great boss to work for
I had little patience for meetings that drug on and on with all manner of Bullsquat that had nothing to do with the job at hand.
A hero in the fullest sense
i feel smarter just listening to this conversation
Thanks so much !! I was waiting for it 😊
Gene Kranz’s team often gets a lot of the credit for figuring out how to get Apollo 13 back home, but I had not realized how much the other flight teams contributed as well. These guys were the best.
After one hour Kranz+team left to organise the backrooms and get a plan for the long term. All the critical parts after the incident were managed by Glynn Lunney and his black team. without such a plan. This shift had to improvise a lot of things very quickly without making this one fatal mistake. Including all the powering down and up and moving to the LM, getting on free return, getting a ptc. In what was arguably the most challenging shift in it's history. The movie giving him no credit is a big shame.
But whoever and whatever, no team or flight director works alone. There is are big backroom staff and Windler, Griffin and Kranz came in and out, as did a lot of other people. Like astronauts coming from the simulator, advising the flight director. In these first hours mainly Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan.
And i never understood how Movie(!)Kranz got so much praise anyway. I think he (again, not the real one!) is an absolute horrible flight director. He only barks at people, he shoots ideas down without listening. And his answer to problems is "i don't care, figure it out". That is not how Kranz or any FD works.
The flight director audio for the first hours is on youtube. And apollo in realtime (google) has all the mission and all the audio from all the mission control channels. Which is a bit of an information overload. For apollo 11 and 13. And some interesting post-shift press conferences with all the flight directors.
Absolutely. Glynn's team handled everything from power down, guidance transfer, getting back on free-return, and so on. That team was very critical in getting that ship home. There are 4 videos on CZcams, the flight director loop, from end or the TV broadcast up to getting on free-return. It's absolutely fascinating.
@@HistoricSpaceStuff Listening to the flight director loops is extraordinary. The difference in management styles between Kranz and Lunney is interesting, but it is very clear that they both lead their teams from the front. The sheer weight of critical information that Lunney had to handle during the 13 crisis is mind boggling. The fact that they got home suggests he made all the right calls in that incredibly tense few hours.
Agreed. Here czcams.com/video/OwE1jEfzI-A/video.htmlh07m08s is the flight director loop precisely when Lunney comes on shift during the incident, and you can hear him immediately start kicking butt for 8 hours. Here czcams.com/video/usjsgmaQF_k/video.html is his press conference following the shift, which really shows how on top of things he was and his state of mind-not worrying about what went wrong, but what to do about it. Wonderful that we have these recordings of these historical moments.
@@HistoricSpaceStuff It's the nature of movies. You have two hours to put across a story, so they can only concentrate on a handful of "characters". Kranz was a more picturesque character than Lunney. Even the way he looked was more like what the public would expect of a flight director. Lunney looked more like a high school science teacher, while Kranz had the crew cut and was better at turning a movie-friendly phrase that could be put into a script. For the movie, they wanted John Wayne from "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" as the flight director, and that's how they wrote the part.
Another example is Jim Lovell. As a kid who followed the space program from Apollo 7 (I was 8 years old at that time), I was familiar with the public persona of Jim Lovell for most of my life. I'd seen him on television what must have been a hundred times in interviews and commentaries from the time I was about 8 years old until the movie came out 25 years later, but in the movie, the Jim Lovell character was just your generic action movie hero, no different than the hero of a thousand other movies. There was nothing about this character that distinguished him as Jim Lovell the individual we'd known since the 1960's. That's just Hollywood, where everything has to be simplified and dumbed-down.
To really understand what a Titan this man was, listen to the Apollo 13 tapes. This man was 2 steps ahead of his controllers.Enourmous RESPECT to the BEST FLIGHT CONTROLLER EVER. RIP.
It's always amazing how crude mission control and nasa were in the early mercury days. Getting the crews for the tracking station in place was sometimes an adventure.
Gene Kranz whos book is a hell of a lot more informative than the movie writes about that in detail. One time a station in africa was basically under siege, while they were talking to the spaceraft overhead.
At times they oriented by the stars! Fantastic!
The idea from reading from Genesis on Apollo eight came from a French ambassadors wife. Kudos to her.
My only “issue” with his comments is that today NASA Mgmnt is so risk averse it’s not beyond the sense that if the present day group was in charge then we never would have made it to the Moon.
Today's NASA would need 75 years and more money than could be printed.
Glynn Lunney legend. R.I.P
What a fellow! A leader among leaders!
I think Kranz and Lunney worked the basic strategy for Apollo 13. Kranz could pull his team off console as a Tiger Team due, I expect, in large part in the respect and trust Kranz had in Lunney and his team.
I'm not sure why many seem to need to 'rank' people during a crisis like Apollo 13. Naturally, the leaders of a team are the visible point persons, but the true success is truly a team one, the ENTIRE flight control team. Too often, in many undertakings, perhaps for brevity, one person is lauded for the accomplishments of all. It is false legend building. Yes, many of these managers made critical decisions, but these were only possible due to input and advice of many others. Far too often this is forgotten for the reader's convenience ... a lazy reason.
Fascinating....
Is this the complete version of interview ?
there are a lot of them in written form on the jsc history website. Lunney has done a lot of them.
R.I.P to the absolute legend Glynn Lunney
As good as Krantz, if not better. Less boss, more input.
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I am unlearned.
You are learned man.
Don’t forget: it was a Christian nation that went to the moon. Even for the nonbelievers, the culture that Christianity helped to make was key to advancing the civilization that was able to go to the moon.
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