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From 1958, when McDonnell (now Boeing) built the Mercury spacecraft, through 1969, when Apollo 11 (first stage and lunar rover built by Boeing, 3rd stage by McD
by LeifCarrotson 7y ago
From 1958, when McDonnell (now Boeing) built the Mercury spacecraft, through 1969, when Apollo 11 (first stage and lunar rover built by Boeing, 3rd stage by McDonnel) landed on the Moon, Boeing rapidly iterated and was an 'outdoor cat'. NASA moved pretty quickly back then, too.
They've just gotten comfortable indoors, growing fat, lazy, and old in the decades since then.
- bumby 7y agoI know your comment is the typical explanation, but to play devil's advocate, it may just be that as organizations mature they move away from "innovation" and towards "maintenance". There's a perspective that that may not exactly be a bad thing. [1] I've heard people say SpaceX looks very much like NASA during the Apollo days, including the average age being in the mid-20s in the control rooms. Contrast that with today where NASA's average age is north of 50. What I think will be interesting is if SpaceX maintains this over the coming decades or if they will become more bureaucratic as the organization ages. http://freakonomics.com/podcast/in-praise-of-maintenance/ http://freakonomics.com/podcast/in-praise-of-maintenance/