The Gemeni and Apollo projects were very iterative, and rife with failures. They launched a new mission every few months! Apollo burned downed and killed the

The Gemeni and Apollo projects were very iterative, and rife with failures. They launched a new mission every few months! Apollo burned downed and killed the crew, the next Apollo was up a few months later! The second moon mission was launched a few months after the first. 1960's NASA was a little bit like SpaceX. That said - we should remember that Space X is iterating on already established tech, at somewhat of a smaller scale. They started smaller. Let's see how it works with their newer, bigger gear that is breaking boundaries.