Kraft was a household name in America throughout the 1960s. He appeared on the cover of the August 27, 1965, issue of Time, profiled as the "Conductor in a Command Post". In the article, he compared himself to Christopher Columbus, and displayed what the magazine described as "an almost angry pride" in his work. "We know a lot more about what we have to do than he did" Kraft said. "And we know where we're going." The article described Kraft's role in the Gemini 5 mission, and drew on his frequent comparisons of his position as flight director with that of an orchestra conductor.

"The conductor can't play all the instruments—he may not even be able to play any one of them. But he knows when the first violin should be playing, and he knows when the trumpets should be loud or soft, and when the drummer should be drumming. He mixes all this up and out comes music. That's what we do here."

Kraft was surprised at Time's decision to put him on the cover and told the NASA public affairs officer that "they've got the wrong guy. It should be Bob Gilruth ... not me."He eventually came to terms with the idea, and the portrait painted for the cover became one of his prized possessions.