Here is the unmanned rockets quote that you refer to. Those were useful things that could have been done by unmanned rockets, but in those days, the state of t

Here is the unmanned rockets quote that you refer to. Those were useful things that could have been done by unmanned rockets, but in those days, the state of the art in computers and robotics was not what it is now. The whole "the state of the art" bit I understand as saying that with modern computers and robotics, unmanned vehicles could have done the job. But they didn't have advanced enough computers and robotics at the time.