posted 10-09-2017 11:00 AM               

Excerpts from Wikipedia:

In 1969, Greene was chosen to work the descent shift for Apollo 11, the first lunar landing. This was a coveted and prestigious assignment, showing the esteem in which he was held by his superiors. Flight Director Gene Kranz, who also worked the descent shift, described Greene as "elite in the ranks of the FIDOs, cocky and crisp with his calls."

...Greene remained in the flight dynamics branch until 1982, spending 1976 through 1979 as section head and 1980 through 1982 as branch chief. He was a FIDO on STS-1 and worked his last mission as FIDO in 1981 on STS-2, the second shuttle launch.

Greene's first mission as flight director in his own right was STS-6, which launched on April 6, 1983. As a flight director, Greene specialized in the ascent shift, considered to be one of the most demanding and dangerous phases of a mission. He worked on ten flights between 1983 and 1986, including STS-61C, which was notable for having included Rep. Bill Nelson (D-FL) as a member of the crew. In his book about the mission, Nelson characterized Greene as a "no-nonsense type of man," "underpaid and overworked," yet dedicated to his job. His tenth and final mission as lead Flight Director was on STS-51L.

...as flight director, Greene was involved in discussion (although by his own recollection, "not a lot") about concerns with the cold weather and ice on the morning of the launch. These concerns had been worked primarily during the shift preceding his, and their conclusion had been that the freezing weather was not a reason to call off the launch as far as the orbiter was concerned.

posted 10-09-2017 02:34 PM               

My favorite story about Jay Greene is from Dick Covey's Oral History. Dick talks about how they were able to convince NASA and Hughes into repairing Leasat F3 on STS-51I.

I remember the day that we got approval to proceed on. Glynn and Joe Engle and I were over at Jay Greene’s house, and we had a bottle of Old Overholt, which is Jay Greene's favorite whiskey, and we drank that bottle celebrating just the fact that we had hoodwinked the whole system into letting us think we could go do this. It would not happen today. I just can't imagine it happening. So that was great.