������ý

“G��.”

“No go.”

“We have lift off.”

“Go for trans-lunar injection.”

“Hold at T-minus 30 seconds.”

This is just some of the evocative and strangely reassuring jargon of the NASA mission controller. Such space-flight speak seems to flow so naturally during a rocket launch telecast that it is hard to imagine someone once had to invent this curious lexicon.

But they did – and the person largely credited with developing both it and the life-critical procedures that underpin it was Chris Kraft. Despite wanting to be a baseball player, Kraft ended up as a flight…