Upworthy · 1 day ago

Apollo Flight Director Gene Kranz Reacts to Artemis Ii Mission

Gene Kranz wrote his high school thesis on how humans would land on the Moon, never imagining he would become the flight director who took Neil Armstrong there, or that at 93, he would witness humanity's return. Watching the Artemis II mission took him back to his thirties, and rather than nostalgia, he felt something unexpected: jealousy of the young NASA interns standing where he once stood. "Anything I've ever done, I would trade them to be in their position," he says, embodying a rare wisdom-the ability to honor what you've lived while celebrating what comes next. He's "too proud to even describe" how it feels to see this new era unfold, a testament not to ego but to a life spent believing in something larger than one mission, one generation, one man.