 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (December 2010) |
Gerald D. Griffin | |
|---|---|
 Griffin in 1982 | |
| Born | December 25, 1934 Athens, Texas, U.S. |
| Education | Aeronautical Engineering |
| Alma mater | Texas A&M University, B.S. 1956 |
| Occupation(s) | Flight director during Apollo era; 1982–1986 director of Johnson Space Center |
| Employer | NASA (Retired) |
| Known for | Mission director for Human Space Flight; portraying similar roles in several major films and providing technical support or narration for television documentaries |
| Spouse | Sandra "Sandy" Huber Griffin |
| Children | Kirk (b. 1959), Gwen (b. 1963) |
Gerald D. Griffin (born December 25, 1934) is an American aeronautical engineer and former NASA official, who served as a flight director during the Apollo program and director of Johnson Space Center, succeeding Chris Kraft in 1982.
When Griffin was nine years old his family moved to Fort Worth, Texas. Upon graduation from Texas A&M he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Air Force. He served four years on active duty, first in flight training, then flying as a weapon systems officer in jet fighter-interceptors. In 1960 Griffin left active duty and began his space career as a systems engineer/flight controller at the USAF Satellite Test Center in Sunnyvale, California.
In 1964 Griffin joined NASA in Houston as a flight controller in Mission Control, specializing in guidance, navigation and control systems during Project Gemini. In 1968 he was named a Mission Control flight director and served in that role for all of the Apollo Program crewed missions, including all nine crewed missions out to the Moon, six of which included lunar landings. Griffin's "Gold" team conducted half of the lunar landings made during Apollo: Apollos 14, 15, 16, and 17. His team was scheduled to conduct the landing of Apollo 13, but when the landing was cancelled as a result of the oxygen tank explosion, his team played a key role in the safe return of the astronauts.
After the Apollo Program was completed Griffin served in other roles at NASA, first in multiple positions at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., then as the deputy director of the Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center in California, then as deputy director of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In 1982 he returned to Houston as director of the Johnson Space Center.
After taking early retirement from NASA in 1986, Griffin became a senior executive with several non-space, as well as space-related, companies and organizations in the private sector. Today Griffin remains active in several businesses at the senior level. He also is a technical and management consultant for a broad range of clients.
Because of his real-life role as a flight director during the troubled flight of Apollo 13, Griffin was a technical advisor for the 1995 film Apollo 13. Later he was a technical advisor and also acted in the films Contact (1997) and Deep Impact (1998), and was the technical advisor for the 2011 film Apollo 18. He is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Griffin was played by actor David Clyde Carr in the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.
Griffin is an active general aviation pilot and aircraft owner, holding a commercial license with an instrument rating for single-engine aircraft, multi-engine aircraft and helicopters.