The right stuff Message #32 Posted by Andrés C. Rodríguez (Argentina) on 18 Jan 2004, 4:17 p.m., in response to message #27 by Jerry Pfile
I always admired the U.S. Space program, and read all material I could obtain, visited many times the Cape and Houston places (as far as a foreign visitor without "real business here" can get), etc. Please don't take this comment as a critique, as it is not.
The success in fulfilling Kennedy challenge ("We choose to go to the Moon, and to do (those) other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard...") have to do with very particular circumstances of the time, which may no longer be present.
Due to such circumstances (from the Cold War climate to Kennedy tragic death), the U.S. people, their leaders, the contractors, the astronauts, etc. choose to accept many efforts, decisions, budgets, and risks; some of which may have appeared not so acceptable had they looked with today eyes.
Today "security" (risk aversion) is mandatory in politics, economy, and so on.
Someone says that, in 1961, they didn't know how to do it, but, notwithstanding, they succeded. I think they knew what it takes, and that's a big part of "how to".
In Kennedy words, again: "For this challenge is one we are willing to accept, we are not willing to pospone, and we intend to win". "Willing" is the key word.
I refer anyone interested to the many great books available, and documents at the NASA History web site.
I may recommend Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff", Heppenheimer's "Countdown", Kranz's "Failure is not an option", Kraft's "Flight", Pellegrino's "Chariots for Apollo", and of course Lovell's "Apollo 13" (a.k.a. "Lost Moon").
PS: As an engineer, I am not in favor of extreme risk aversion, nor in favor of risky dreams or merely political goals.
Scientifically analyzed risks, properly disclosed and discussed, can be accepted; after working as much as possible to reduce them to a non-zero minimum. Alas, this seems not to be the current mood.
Comments welcome!
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