Ex-Calif
Well-known member
The men of Mercury and Gemini had stones of granite. We lived our program basically publicly. Our failures were broadcast. I could not imagine watching Redstone after Redstone blow up on the pad and then say, "Yeah sure. Strap it to my butt and lets go."
In "The Right Stuff", I hope he actually said it, Shepherd finally said, "OK let's light this candle!"
Apollo 1 could have shut our program down. It's amazing even after the delays for congressional hearings we made the moon before 1970. Probably the best demonstration post war of American doggedness.
In retrospect NASA probably needed their chain jerked. When "engineers run wild" they can get tunnel vision on technology and deadlines and not perceive the safety aspect so much.
I recently was looking at a bunch of the Russian history. They, of course, were very secretive. They actually lost a lot of guys we now know - not surprising based on their culture of the time and maybe to a degree now. We may never know how many they lost. But, for sure, I don't think I would have loved the privilege of being invited to Star City to be a cosmonaut - LOL...
In "The Right Stuff", I hope he actually said it, Shepherd finally said, "OK let's light this candle!"
Apollo 1 could have shut our program down. It's amazing even after the delays for congressional hearings we made the moon before 1970. Probably the best demonstration post war of American doggedness.
In retrospect NASA probably needed their chain jerked. When "engineers run wild" they can get tunnel vision on technology and deadlines and not perceive the safety aspect so much.
I recently was looking at a bunch of the Russian history. They, of course, were very secretive. They actually lost a lot of guys we now know - not surprising based on their culture of the time and maybe to a degree now. We may never know how many they lost. But, for sure, I don't think I would have loved the privilege of being invited to Star City to be a cosmonaut - LOL...