bears mention that much of the hardware on the early generation space systems, including mercury, gemini and apolloth slide rules. and the computers on board the mercury, the gemini and the apollo capsules were very rudimentary by today's standards. several weeks ago and a hearing before the house science committee, neil armstrong made this point by holding up his cell phone and testifying that it had far more capability than the computer that guided the apollo 11 capsule. it's impossible to fully grasp the discoveries and technologies that have sprung from our nation's space flight program. and the innovations and products they spawned. so too it's challenging to measure the effect our space programs had on america's place in the community of nations and on our international prestige. but i can tell you we wouldn't be discussing these outcomes today were it not for john glenn, neil armstrong, mike collins, and buzz aldrin, and their wives and families who support and sacrifices enabled the success of these missions. congratulations to all of these. your exploits have become integral to our nation'

flight directors had become a very valuable commodity because many of the people who caused the mercury gemini apollo programs to come into being were now retire, they were leaving the program. my flight directors, cliff charlesworth was one of the first to go. we were now looking at how we could apply some of the technologies we had to other problems on earth. glenn lunny left. he picked up the apollo soyuz program at that time which is now this next generation of involvement trying to involve the russians in space as partners. all of a sudden i started finding myself short in flight directors and having to bring new people on-board. so i was -- role was sort of a mentor, teacher, tutor, same as kraft had done in the early days, and at the same time to stretch our assets because i had to move training people over there. we started standardizing many of the mission flights. i would launch the apollo 15, 16, 17 from both the earth, as well as the moon. and the other flight directors would ahandle the evas. griffin would do the landings. we kept the experience as high as we could and moved new generati

i want to honor those who contributed to the incredible success of the mercury, gemini and apollo programs and that have followed and has yet to come. i also want to thank congress. our nation is a better place because of more than a half century of strong bipartisan support for nasa's work. five members of the most recent class of 2009 are with us today to pay tribute to the congressional gold medal honorees and build on their accomplishments to make similar lasting contributions to our nation's space program. this new group of astronauts stands on the shoulders of the giants we recognize and honor here today and they will redefine space exploration in the years to come and continue to honor the legacy of john glenn, neil armstrong, buzz aldrin and michael collins. it's a lasting legacy, a legacy that transforms our modern world. the inspiration they provided to generations isn't something we can measure but we can feel in our hearts. as a nation, we would not be the same without them and their bravery. their sense of duty and dedication to public service. and their great skill at thinkin

covered the american manned space program, interviews director gene kranz, who worked on "mercury," "gemini" and "apollo as lead flight director of the "apollo 13" mission, he and his team lplayed a significant role in guiding astronauts back to earth. this is part two of an interview conducted for nasa's johnson space center. >> it was time to move on to "apollo 12." i can remember pete con regard, since you were talking, let's talk about another, who said to me, those guys landed on the moon, what do i do for an encore? >> was there a similar feeling in mission control? >> no. i think, in fact, it didn't take a second for the program office to ratchet up the complexity of the objectives. once you landed on the moon, what are you going to do to top it? i'm going to land on the moon next to a surveyor satellite that was put up there a couple years. what we're going to do, at the time the crew is dedescending, we're going to give them an update to alter their trajectory so they can land there. and if they didn't do it. i think the entire "apollo 12" mission had this -- now for a change, i was sitting bac

i look at the shuttle as the last hurrah of the mercury, gemini and apollo generation. it is the device that was founded in the principles that george lowe and rob berth gill reth established. carries forward the characteristics of strong leadership like a chris craft, deke slaton, aaron cohen, owen morris. basically if you take a look at how this device came into being, it is probably the most advanced technological space system that has ever been built and very interestingly enough it was built by a generation of people that today just really don't receive the recognition that they have or they should have for the commitment they made to america's -- in fact, the world's space capabilities. i believe that the shuttle was the instrument that was built by the most gifted technologists, leaders and managers that ever existed within the space program. and i think this gift that they gave to the american people, the american public, the space business is never fully recognized. it's the most fundamentally reliable system, space system that has ever been built. it is a spac

mercury and gemini. when we ended we were talking about apollo 9. you had said something about jim mcdibitt as the commander of that mission and i think that's a good point to pick up. what do you remember of apollo 9? >> well, there were many things, really. i think the principle change that we saw was the very long-term association we had with the crew preparing for flight. we were originally in the slot that the bormon crew took, we were shoved back in the schedule.

kranz worked on mercury, gemini and apoll jie space missions and was fight director when the apollo astronauts landed on the moon. he and his team played a significant role in guiding three astronauts back to earth after an explosion on the spacecra spacecraft. this is part two of an oral history interview conducted for nasa's johnson space center. >> it is time to move on to apollo 12. i can remember pete conrad since you were talking about one great test pilot, another said to me, lord, those guys landed on the moon. what do i do for an encore. was there a similar feeling here at mission control? >> no, i think that they -- in fact it didn't take a second for the program office to ratchet up the complexity, objectives. once you land on the moon, what are you going to do to top it? i'm going to land next to a surveyor satellite on the moon that was put up there a couple of years ago. we're going to give them a verbal guidance update, they're going to enter into their computer which is going to alter their trajectory so they can land right there. and doggone, if they didn't do it! i think the

>> mercury wasn't as complicated, so to speak, as later on gemini and apollo. first thing before you launch it, first you go through the steps a little bit -- you put your spacecraft on top of the rocket. okay? now we have to hook up all the connectors that interface with the rocket itself. then you have to prove that all the wiring and all the circuits in there work. then each system engineer wants to make sure his system is still working, be it communication system, oxygen system, environmental control system. the guidance system is on but each one needs to test it. now the problem is each one wants to do it at the same time. it doesn't work. you now have to go ahead and play traffic cop and say, okay, can you do your job in the time slot after we have powered up and you can do yours at this time. however, i need these people to monitor this. see, that's where you need to prepare everything. then before launch you get -- mercury wasn't that critical because they didn't have much in the way of food provisioning or things like that but you had to load the oxyge