HOLLYWOOD, July 14 (UPI) -- A space documentary based on Gene Kranz's best-selling book, "Failure is not an Option," will premiere on the History Channel Aug. 24.
Gene Kranz, NASA's mission control flight director, is known to moviegoers from Ed Harris' portrayal of him in the feature film "Apollo 13."
The program provides an insider's view of more than 30 years of technological innovation and human determination.
Three years after the Russians launched Sputnik in 1957, Kranz quit his job as an engineer working in aircraft test programs to join NASA.
There he found a fledgling organization full of engineering "whiz kids" -- recent college graduates who were pioneering daring new approaches to projects that had only been dreamed.
Former President John F. Kennedy had challenged them to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s and they were determined to succeed, according to Kranz.
