Quote:
Originally Posted by goober
Someone asked a NASA administrator why we beat the Russians to the moon.
And he said "Because our Germans are better than their Germans"
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Yeah, that's again giving the German scientist too much credit. I seriously doubt better German scientist would of given the USSR that much more of a edge. Especially when the Soviet State and scientific progress are directly at odds with each other due to a lack of freedom of information (More so with German scientist). The truth of the matter is the USSR was unprepared, and had a decentralized effort which they spent less money on. They weren't even close.
Quote:
Originally Posted by goober
During WWI, Goddard submitted plans for a shoulder held, tube launched rocket, to the War Department.
He received a nice letter saying they had reviewed his idea, and concluded that it was of no military value.
During his career Goddard was unable to get the War Department interested in rockets or jet engines. He was ridiculed for his efforts. He died in 1945.
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He was certainly a visionary for his time. Pity he didn't live to see his dreams realized and even more so that his idea's were so easily tossed aside.