Gene Kranz Quotes in Apollo 13 (1995)

NASA Director: This could be the worst disaster NASA's ever experienced.

Gene Kranz: With all due respect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour.

Gene Kranz: We've never lost an American in space, we're sure as hell not gonna lose one on my watch! Failure is not an option.

Gene Kranz: I don't care about what anything was DESIGNED to do, I care about what it CAN do.

CAPCOM 2: 13, we just got another request from the Flight Surgeon for you to get some sleep. Don't like these readings down here.

Jim Lovell: [Tearing off his biomeds] Let's see how he likes this. I am sick and tired of the entire western world knowing how my kidneys are functioning!

Dr. Chuck: [after Lovell's heartrate flatlines] Flight, we just lost Lovell!

CAPCOM 2: 13, Houston. Jim, we just had a bottoming out on your biomeds.

Jim Lovell: I'm not wearing my biomeds.

CAPCOM 2: [after Gene Kranz shrugs it off] Ok, Jim. Copy that.

[Jack and Fred now tear away their own biomeds]

Dr. Chuck: [after all three crew members flatline] Flight, now I lost all three of them!

Gene Kranz: It's just a little medical mutiny, Doc. I'm sure the boys are still with us. Let's cut them a little slack, ok?

R.E.T.R.O. White: Flight, we are looking at a typhoon warning on the edge of the prime recovery zone.

Gene Kranz: Say again, RETRO?

R.E.T.R.O. White: Flight, we are looking at a typhoon warning on the edge of the prime recovery zone. Now, this is just a warning, it could miss them...

Gene Kranz: Yeah, only if their luck changes.

Gene Kranz: Let's work the problem people. Let's not make things worse by guessing.

Sy Liebergot: Flight... I recommend we shut down reactant valves to the fuel cells.

Gene Kranz: What the hell good is that gonna do?

Sy Liebergot: If that's where the leak is, we can isolate it. We can save what's left in the tanks and we can run on the good cell.

Gene Kranz: You close 'em, you can't open 'em again! You can't land on the moon with one healthy fuel cell!

Sy Liebergot: Gene, the Odyssey is *dying*. From my chair here, this is the last option.

Gene Kranz: Lunar module has just become a lifeboat.

Jerry Bostick - FIDO White: Looks like Mrs. Kranz pulled out the ol' needle and thread again...

Technician: Last one looked like he bought it off a gypsy.

Jerry Bostick - FIDO White: Well I guess you can't argue with tradition.

Technician: [Gene puts on a flight vest with an Apollo 13 patch on it, everyone begins applauding] Hey Gene, I guess we can go now!

Gene Kranz: Save it for splashdown fellas...

Gene Kranz: Come on, I want whatever you guys got on the power-up procedures. We've got to get something up to these guys.

Deke Slayton: Gene, they're working on it.

Gene Kranz: I don't want the want the whole damn bible, just give me a couple of chapters. We've got to give these guys something.

Deke Slayton: They're working on it now.

NASA engineer: I'll get over there and get an estimate.

Gene Kranz: Goddamnit! I don't want another estimate! I want the procedure! Now!

Gene Kranz: Gentlemen, at this moment, I want you all to forget the flight plan. From this moment on, we are improvising a new mission: How do we get our people home?

[Goes to the chalkboard, draws a big circle representing Earth, another smaller circle representing the moon, then draws a line from the Earth to just short of the moon]

Gene Kranz: They are here. Do we turn them around, straight back, direct abort?

[NASA controllers instantly start arguing]

Jerry Bostick - FIDO White: No, sir! No, sir! We get them on a free-return trajectory. It's the option with the fewest question marks for safety.

Gene Kranz: I agree with Jerry. We use the moon's gravity, slingshot them around.

R.E.T.R.O. White: No, the LEM will not support three guys for that amount of time. I mean, we've got to do a direct abort. We do an about-face, we bring the guys right home, right now.

Booster White: Get them back soon, absolutely.

Jerry Bostick - FIDO White: Look, we don't even know if the Odyssey's engine's even working. If there's been serious damage to this spacecraft...

GUIDO White: They blow up and they die!

R.E.T.R.O. White: That is not the argument! We're talking about time!

[Controllers argue again]

Gene Kranz: Okay, hold it. Let's hold it down. The only engine we got with enough power for a direct abort is the SPS on the service module. From what Lovell has told us, that could have been damaged in an explosion, so let's consider that engine dead. We light that thing up, it could blow the whole works. It's just too risky. We're not going to take that chance. About the only thing the command module is good for is reentry, so that leaves us with the LEM, which means free-return trajectory. Once we get the guys around the moon, we'll fire the LEM engine, make a long burn, pick up some speed, and get them home as quickly as we can.

Gene Kranz: Let's look at this thing from a... um, from a standpoint of status. What do we got on the spacecraft that's good?

[pause]

Sy Liebergot: I'll get back to you, Gene.

Gene Kranz: EECOM, is this an instrumentation problem, or are we looking at real power loss here?

Sy Liebergot: It's, it's reading a quadruple failure - that can't happen! It's, it's got to be instrumentation.