The architect of NASA’s mission control system was the grandson of a 1920s Phoebus saloon owner whose journey to making space history is now on display at the Hampton History Museum.
“Christ Kraft: Hampton’s Unlikely Space Hero” features 50 pieces that showcase Kraft’s extensive career with NASA as well as his upbringing in Phoebus.
Curator Allen Hollman pored through 540 personal artifacts, photographs and documents loaned to the museum by Kraft’s adult children.
Kraft was born in 1924 when there was a federal ban on alcohol sales. However, Phoebus had plenty of saloons to the point it was considered “little Chicago,” Hollman said.
“His childhood was somewhat unconventional,” he said.
Growing up, Kraft’s family lived with his grandmother and his father was a World War I veteran.
Kraft himself never served; he suffered permanent burns on his hands from playing in a garbage burn pit near his grandfather’s saloon as a child, which kept him from enlisting.
Kraft was a good student at Hampton High School, which led him to Virginia Tech, then known as VPI (Virginia Polytechnical Institute).
Being a dedicated Hokie, there’s now a campus street named after him: Kraft Drive. In 1986, after he retired from NASA, Kraft donated most of his NASA documents and flight plan papers to the school’s library, essentially establishing a collection area, Virginia Tech said. Several items in the Hampton exhibit show items from his time in Blacksburg, like a sweater and old baseballs, which was his preferred sport.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering, Kraft joined the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory under the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor of NASA.
In October 1958, he became one of the original members of the Space Task Group, formed to oversee Project Mercury and 1965’s Project Gemini.
His role was so important that he appeared on the cover of TIME magazine in 1965. A reprint of the image begins the exhibit.
Later, he was head of mission control for Apollo 11 1969 – the historic mission that landed astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon.
“Managing those missions was so complicated,” Holloman said. “He worked to make it manageable. That’s when he conceived for everyone to gather in one room which became mission control. When in the movie Apollo 13, Tom Hanks says ‘Houston we have a problem’. Chris Kraft is Houston.”
Kraft’s exhibit is complimented by photos from William "Bill" Taub, NASA's first staff photographer. From the1950s until the 1970s, he played a significant role at NASA by capturing iconic images of the early space flight. The photos include astronauts, spacecraft, mission preparations and launches.
Taub’s photos helped communicate the space exploration story to the public to promote NASA’s successful missions. The photos were widely published in the newspapers and became a visual record of NASA’s achievements.
For hours and admission, visit the Hampton History Museum online.
