Picking Up What Was Left Behind

When NASA flight director Gene Kranz retired in 1994, he didn't just leave behind a desk and a headset. He left behind a way of seeing the impossible — the fierce, vest-wearing confidence that had talked Apollo 13 home from the edge of death. His successors at Mission Control didn't try to become Kranz. They couldn't. But they inherited something more important than his personality: his standard.…