Gene Kranz Got a New Vest for Every Flight
The film Apollo 13 features Flight Director Gene Kranz, played by Ed Harris, receiving a box from his wife. After a good-natured ribbing by colleagues, Kranz unfolds its contents and slips on a white vest emblazoned with an Apollo 13 mission patch. This movie moment captures an important symbol for Kranz, flight director of Gemini and Apollo missions in the “White Team” division, one of three rotating Mission Control teams. His wife Marta came up with the idea for Kranz to wear a “white team” vest as a symbol of each flight that the people of Mission Control could rally around. sewing each vest herself. He would get one to wear during the flight, and another, more wildly colored vest when the flight splashed down. But after the extraordinarily challenging Apollo 13 mission, Kranz kept on the white vest rather than changing into the ‘celebration’ version.