NASA's Preparation
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During the Space Race, NASA was comprised of young minds and a lack of bureaucracy.
The average age in mission control was 28.5 years old. NASA made a point of hiring new minds, that could not “think outside the box” because they had never been put in a box. NASA was writing the book when it came to space travel, but they were doing it with precision and care. For a launch which took about 11 minutes and 45 seconds, the men in mission control would go through over 200 hours of simulation. There was a team whose job it was to make the simulations as difficult and unpredictable as possible. It was believed that if mission control could make it through the simulations, the launch itself would be a piece of cake. |
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NASA and the Soviet ProgramIn the race to control space, there would inevitably be accidents and fatalities. The two superpowers approached these very differently though. NASA worked tirelessly to ensure that the spacecraft were as safe as possible, and every precaution was taken. In contrast, the Soviet space program was incredibly dangerous. In a rush to do everything first, the Soviets had many unsuccessful launches and fatalities from launching accidents. However, it is difficult to determine exactly how many fatalities there were, because the Soviets were very secretive with their program. Only successes were published, with the hope that the Soviet population and the world would never see the failures. On the other hand, NASA was open and honest with the public. Everything was public and broadcast on tv, so both failures and successes were known.
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