LOL I know your point! But the 50's rockets assumed a technology far beyond what we had available and are only now achieving.
Look at the lunar missions; we had to orbit Earth, then bring 2 ships to the moon, land one and come back, then boogie on home. The engineering to have a ship take off from Earth, land anywhere, take off again and return home? Not enough power to take all the excess weight! Can you imagine landing the Command Module on the moon and then being able to return to Earth directly?
This was so amazing! I know a lot of fellow engineers that work @ SpaceX and as a company they are very generous and at the height of cutting edge technology. But they will kill you with the work hours that they encourage (and sometimes demand).
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Look at the lunar missions; we had to orbit Earth, then bring 2 ships to the moon, land one and come back, then boogie on home. The engineering to have a ship take off from Earth, land anywhere, take off again and return home? Not enough power to take all the excess weight! Can you imagine landing the Command Module on the moon and then being able to return to Earth directly?
SJG
OK, it's really a great testament to American ability!