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> Circa Apollo 11 the average age of a NASA engineer was 28. In 2009 it was 47. I find this highly dubious because circa Apollo 11 the space program employed i
by titzer 4y ago
> Circa Apollo 11 the average age of a NASA engineer was 28. In 2009 it was 47.
I find this highly dubious because circa Apollo 11 the space program employed its largest workforce ever, including bazillions of mechanical engineers making nuts and bolts.
A more meaningful comparison would be what the average age of the managers and leadership are/were.
- colechristensen 4y agoMechanical engineers are not machinists. They help but don't actually do the production work.
- bobthepanda 4y agoIt kind of makes sense. Space program was in its infancy, so I would also expect the workforce knowledgeable about space to be in its infancy, because it's not like there were experienced people putting satellites in orbit in the '20s, let alone an education pipeline for it. And those were back in the days when people got pensions and had loyalty to companies and whatnot. By 2009 the industry was old enough to have people close to retirement age who had studied it in college.