Gene Kranz, il leggendario Direttore di volo delle missioni Apollo ha realizzato un video in collaborazione con la NASA per motivare il personale e per “make it happen”.
Recentemente insignito del Ambassador of Exploration Award, Kranz non illustra i problemi che sono sorti nello sviluppo dei nuovi mezzi ma sottolinea che le sfide ci sono sempre state e con esse i problemi e anche il suo team li ebbe ma furono in grado di superarli.
Questo il discorso:
[i]"What you’re looking at here is America’s drive to explore the moon, a space program coming back to life, a re-awakening, a renaissance, a re-dedication of our nation that will lead the way into the next chapter of human destiny.
It’s very exciting stuff, but you already know that, because you are the folks that are making it happen. I salute all of you that are on the team that will take us back to the moon and on to Mars.
You are today where I was about 45 years ago, when we decided to go to the moon for the first time, when we responded to President Kennedy’s challenge ‘we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.’ You have a similar challenge, given to us by President Bush, and it is up to you to make it happen.
There are many similarities between our challenge to reach for the moon back in 1961 and your challenge today. The real similarity is the human factor, the people, the learning curve that you have in place that started many years earlier in a place called Cape Canaveral.
We have a marvellous array of technology, and text books are written. You have flight experience, and you have all the tools necessary to make this happen.
When we started in 1960, we had to write the books, we had to invent the technology. They are there, they are available to you, and you can make this next program happen.
Our learning curve, as we went through Mercury, Gemini and Apollo was very steep. With Mercury we learned of leaders and leadership - leaders must have integrity, they are up front, they challenge the team to accomplish their mission.
We also learned a lot about ourselves with Mercury, as a lot of us came in from aircraft testing, with egos as big as the room we worked in. We had to learn to leave our egos at the door and become a team, so we became one.
With Gemini, we had to cope with the new technologies of space, with fuel cells, computers and bi-propellant rocket engines. But again, after we had met the challenge of these new technologies, we continued to learn.
We learned discipline, a focus upon our objective that was so intense that we would never fail to achieve that objective.
We also learned the value of high morale, because with Mercury, we knew we were now succeeding because of our beliefs, in our mission, our team and ourselves. So as we entered into Apollo we had all the tools in place, as a team, to reach for the moon.
But we were bloodied by the Apollo I fire, and I hope that you should never had to go through a day like we did.
There we became tough and competent. Tough meant we were never going to walk away from our responsibilities, because we’re forever accountable for what we do, or what we fail to do. Competent, because we’re never going to take anything for granted, we’re never going to stop learning. From now on, the teams of Apollo are going to be perfect.
The challenges you (Ares/Orion teams) will face are going to be enormous, but you have history to provide you with the direction you need. You have leaders in place today, within this agency, who have come up through the program. They have faced these challenges before, they know how to respond to them.
You have an American public that is looking for you to succeed. They believe in you, they believe in space - and it is up to you to make these beliefs come true.
You have the moon and Mars that you can reach for. It’s a star, it’s a mystery, but if you set your aims high, you can accomplish any challenge you are faced with. But most of all you must believe in yourself, and you must believe in your team.
If you have that belief, you can make it happen."[/i]
Se alla NASA “tirano fuori” il buon vecchio Gene per motivare il personale per Orion/Ares sono proprio messi male… :bi:
) è curioso che nel discorso si faccia mensione del progetto Mercury, Gemini ed Apollo ma NON dello shuttle… 
Eppure Gene Kranz è stato flight director delle prime missioni Shuttle fino al suo ritiro nel 1994…