Christopher Columbus Kraft
Engineer
NASA engineer and flight director who was integral in organizing many Mission Control operations.
He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1944 with an aeronautical engineering degree.
He appeared on a 1965 Time Magazine cover, and was known throughout America as a leader of NASA's space program.
He married Betty Anne Turnbull in 1950, and the couple had a daughter and a son.
American President Dwight Eisenhower signed a 1958 act that created NASA and aerospace facilities such as Virginia's Langley Research Center, where Kraft worked.