Tranquility Base here...

[Slartibartfast]

 

1969...

 

The Eagle has landed... They spent 6 and a half hours moonwalking... and here we are today still on this planet we call home...

[+streakeagle]

An absolutely amazing achievement that very few appreciate today.

People vote for themselves, not the future beyond their own lifetime.

I doubt the United States will ever devote the resources toward technology breakthroughs the way it did during the Cold War.

The moon landing may be the high point of US history.

Instead of going where no man has gone before, US citizens just want internet access and free health care.

 

Maybe China or India will pick up the torch and go further as they transcend into being the next military and economic world superpowers.

 

Of course, the only reason our aerospace industry beat out everyone else is that our captured Nazi scientists were better than their captured Nazi scientists

Funny how being able to design rockets gave a bunch of people a free pass on their wartime behavior.

Edited July 20, 2012 by streakeagle

[Gr.Viper]

our captured Nazi scientists were better than their captured Nazi scientists

The Soviets didn't get the good Nazi scientists to volunteer, and reverse-engineered what rockets they got. The first Soviet rocket was a V2 clone. Then it was up to home-grown engineers.

 

It's a bloody miracle that this period in space exploration had so few fatalities and saw many successes on the first try. Just think about it, the majority of those launches involved prototypes, or stuff that previously worked only on paper and slide rulers.

[Toryu]

Instead of going where no man has gone before, US citizens just want internet access and free health care.

 

I don't get why people always lament on public health-care, when the elephant in the room is a bank-bailout that has taken more money than the entire 50yr budget of NASA.

 

The Soviets didn't get the good Nazi scientists to volunteer, and reverse-engineered what rockets they got. The first Soviet rocket was a V2 clone. Then it was up to home-grown engineers.

 

There were lots of german V2 engineers sent to Russia in order to work on the ICBM-projects. The first US/ Soviet rockets were both V2-clones. The Redsone rocket was in fact a V2 on steroids.

The Germans were working on the soviet "space"-project up untill the mid 50s. there were also other groups of german engineers working on the SU, like the former Junkers-engineers that basicly designed the NK-12 turboprop for the Bear bomber.

 

Half of the "few fatalities"-issue was due to sheer luck.

The Soviets in general were much more willing to gamble during their space-programm, hence the head-start.