If failure is an option, call back

A friend of mine recently had the amazing chutzpah to pick up the phone and call Gene Kranz, retired NASA flight director and one of the heroes of the Apollo 13 rescue. He very nearly got hung up on. But somehow, amazingly, Kranz stayed with him and they ended up having an actual conversation about NASA yesterday and today. Since then they’ve been e-mailing back and forth. Here’s an excerpt of their correspondence.

Cpt. Kranz:
Good afternoon. This is the guy that called your home and blabbered at you a few weeks ago. So a question: whether youre in a flat spin or at console getting a 1201 with 30 secs left, what goes through your mind? Is there something you go to down deep besides keeping your eye on the ball? A saying? Or is it pure focus and training?
honored,
TC

Kranz responded to TC’s somewhat nutty note with:

TC,
In crisis mode I depend on my training to get me through the first few minutes then revert to a checklist that I developed in early spaceflight and during training. See the attached. It was the key to getting through the first hour of Apollo XIII.
Cheersl

I love the use of present tense — “In crisis mode I depend on …” — suggesting that he reacts similarly to household crises in his retirement.

Here’s the checklist:

CONTINGENCY CHECKLIST
VEHICLE/CREW
1. PROBLEM INDICATIONS
2. PROCEDURE AVAILABLE
3. CRITICAL SYSTEMS
4. LIFETIME AVAILABLE
5. LIFEBOAT AVAILABLE AND INITIALIZED
6. ASSIGN TEAM TO TRACK S/C CONFIGURATION
7. DEFINE ONBOARD READOUTS
8. MAINTAIN ATTITUDE REFERENCE
9. MEMORY DUMP
DATA RECOVERY
1. TAPE DUMP/PLAYBACK
2. MCC/RTCC/CCATS CALLUP
3. DATA PRIORITY
4. VOICE TRANSCRIPT
5. DATA SECURITY
6. TERMINATE UNNEEDED EXTERNAL COMM
7. DATA ANALYSIS TEAM CHIEF
8. ARCHIVE DATA/TESTING/MFG/OTHER
MISSION IMPACT
1. CONTINUE/ALTERNATE/ABORT
2. SYSTEMS CAPABILITY FOR PLANNING
3. RETURN TO EARTH OPTIONS
4. TIME FOR GO/NOGO DECISION
5. TRACKING REQUIREMENTS
FLIGHT CONTROL TEAM
1. TEAM TAGGED UP AT ALL TIMES
2. BACKUP TEAM CALLED
3. PHASE TEAM ON STANDBY
4. MANAGEMENT CALLED
5. SPAN WORKING PROBLEM
6. RECOVERY STATUS
7. SHIFT SCHEDULE
8. PAO AND SECURITY BRIEFING
9. TERMINATE NON-ESSENTIAL ACTIVITY
10. SIMULATORS CALLED UP
11. MAKE TEAM ASSIGNMENTS FOR ANALYSIS,-/OPTIONS/PROCEDURES
CAUTIONS
ASSURE COMM DURING MANEUVERS
IMPACT OF NEXT CRITICAL FAILURE
VALIDATE GROUND/CREW INDICATIONS
LIMIT CREW RECONFIGURATION
SLOW AND CONSERVATIVE

Now, I’m not a director of space missions (though god knows I should be), but I’m going to try using this checklist next time one of my projects runs into trouble. Perhaps tomorrow? Will let you know how it goes.