They were extremely clever but I strongly object to characterizing the program as “scrappy”.
They were doing beyond bleeding edge stuff with zero compromise. They didn’t settle. They just kept inventing until they had the capability they needed. Then they moved on to making the next impossible thing possible.
The Apollo Guidance Computer used the first integrated circuits. Like, literally the first batches manufactured went into the AGC. 2/3 of the national supply of a brand new technology is not “scraps”.
They went to the absolute limit of what was technologically possible then and is not technologically possible today. I understand that’s the reason for the Iron Man reference but it just doesn’t work here. The 1960s were not the stone age. Apollo was thousands of Tony Starks with the full backing of the United States. Not a couple guys in a cave fighting for their lives.
They were doing beyond bleeding edge stuff with zero compromise. They didn’t settle. They just kept inventing until they had the capability they needed. Then they moved on to making the next impossible thing possible.
The Apollo Guidance Computer used the first integrated circuits. Like, literally the first batches manufactured went into the AGC. 2/3 of the national supply of a brand new technology is not “scraps”.
They went to the absolute limit of what was technologically possible then and is not technologically possible today. I understand that’s the reason for the Iron Man reference but it just doesn’t work here. The 1960s were not the stone age. Apollo was thousands of Tony Starks with the full backing of the United States. Not a couple guys in a cave fighting for their lives.