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NASA hired literal Nazis to start its space program. The Soviet space program was somewhat kneecapped by having its management shift with the political winds a
by throwaway0a5e 5y ago
NASA hired literal Nazis to start its space program.
The Soviet space program was somewhat kneecapped by having its management shift with the political winds as people fell into or out of favor and having good people stuck in marginalized roles because of their political history.
I'd bet good money on the winner being the the model that doesn't care what people believe on topics not related to work.
- geofft 5y ago... and the Soviets beat NASA to space, both in getting a satellite in orbit and in getting a human in orbit. (There's a bit of inherent Great Man Fallacy in figuring out the contributions of the Nazis, because while on the one hand von Braun did lead the design for the rocket that got NASA on the moon and the Soviets failed miserably at their equivalent, on the other hand, the Soviet rocketry lead who was behind their two previous successes died in 1966. There's an argument that they would have pulled it off if he had survived, but more generally, there's an argument that people other than von Braun were perfectly capable of competently building rockets, and in particular that they could do better work than the Americans while under Soviet-style politics.)
- alisonkisk 5y agoThe USA's sentimental protection of human life slowed down experimentation.
- neoromantique 5y agoAs opposed to?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- edgyquant 5y agoI don’t think it’s a Great Man Fallacy but more Nazis had the institutional knowledge that the US and USSR lacked at the end of WWII.