i learned from gene krantz and from the early flight directors. i wanted to make sure that we didn't lose those lessons, but nasa changed. the problem with the shuttle program was nasa was a research organization. it was not designed to be an operational organization. it was not designed to run an airlines. and we were always caught in this dichotomy of we want to keep flying the shuttle and there were attempts to turn it over to contractors, but it's like kind of like hiring a contractor to fight your war for you if you're a nation. some things should be under the direct control of those with profits in mind. and serve the will of the people and serve the constitution, so to speak. and so, once we started flying lots and lots of missions and the early programs, there was assessment. we're going to fly 50 missions a year or a week and you could never do it with four shuttles and couldn't do it with the staffing we had, it was impossible, but we did fly 12 in one year and it got really, really busy. so we got into this mode of trying to put-- to sy

director was back in the mercury days and he will his that his days in the space program and then jean krantz wrote a book failure is not an option as he was a flight director for apollo so i felt that somebody needed to capture the view from the flight director console in mission control for the shuttle program. we see lots of excellent books by mostly astronauts from their years in the shuttle program and i want people to remember that for every astronaut that flies there are tens of thousands contributing to the program and there is a broader perspective i figured it was time we captured some of those from the control center. it took a little time to write we retire the shuttle in 2011 collecting those writing chapters from when we came out the book last year doing a lot of writing and flying so it is the impetus to say so we have a very good publisher and i have a wonderful editor who helped me take all the material i put together to formulate how we wanted the book to look. i like to tell people bite up the front that chris's book covered the flight director of the mercury program and je

from the best, i will learn from the guys who luke, who took us to the moon for a learn from jean krantz i learned from these early flight directors. i wanted to make sure we did not lose those lessons. but nasa changed. the problem with the shuttle program was, nasa was a research organization. it was not designed to be an operational organization. it was not renter run an airline. we were always caught in this dichotomy of we want to keep flying the shuttle there were attempts to turn the shuttle over to contractors. this kind of like hiring a contractor to fight your work for you ifli you are a nation. some things should be under the direct control of the people who do not have profits in mind they're just there to serve the good of the people and serve the constitution. and so, once we start flying lots and lots of mission, the early program we were going to flight 50 missions a year the load a week you couldn't do it for shuttles in the staffing we had was impossible. that we did flight 12 in one year. i got really, really busy. so we got into this mode of trying to symphony eyes ev