this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (16 children)

Well, he's not wrong technically, but the context feels like it's obviously missing. We have no Saturn V vehicles anymore, nor can we build them again. Starship might require that many launches to get to TLI, but with reusability, it probably can. Not to mention that the cost will come down a bit. So it can at least do it soon.

I'm sure others have more coherent and thought out rebuttals.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago (15 children)

why can't we build them again? were the blueprints and knowledge lost? deliberately destroyed? genuine question

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Because a lot of "Released Engineering Documents" were just engineering notebooks, and each vehicle was different, even the parts that were supposed to be the same. There was a lot of "repair" versus "rework" disposition, and a "Just make it work; it only needs to work once" culture.

Basically, because it was a race against the Russians, and the Russians were winning.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

huh, impressive that we did a (relatively) slapdash job of it and still pulled it off. Thanks for clarifying.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago

It's downright fucking nuts that it all worked and I'm astonished we didn't leave any astronauts on the moon, and Apollo 13 crew made it back.

Apollo 13 is a helluva movie that really exposes how razor-thin everything was.

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