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I am not sure I would call not building two space stations for the purposes of the program crazy. Remember, that the Apollo program was initiated before anyone
by msl 10y ago
I am not sure I would call not building two space stations for the purposes of the program crazy. Remember, that the Apollo program was initiated before anyone had performed an orbital rendezvous of any kind. For quite some time the preferred (by most) approach to the moon landing was direct ascent [0], as rendezvousing seemed just too scary.
The approach of sending a large, but modular spacecraft all the way to the moon also proved to have the ability survive some rather interesting failure modes [1] so maybe it was not so crazy after all?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_ascent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_ascent
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13#Accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13#Accident
- hga 10y agoRemember, that the Apollo program was initiated before anyone had performed an orbital rendezvous of any kind. And, yet, that became part of the plan rather quickly, it and EVA (extra-vehicular activity) were the big flashy parts of Project Gemini, during which I started following it all in real time.
- Retric 10y agoApollo used orbital rendezvous for every moon landing. Remember 3 go to moon, 2 land, then 3 come home. Among other advantages this means the lander does not need to drag a heat shield with it.