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Quote by: Mozart1220  Why not? It's all in the math, and the ability of the pilot to think on his feet. These guys were test pilots. They were used to getting it right the "first time" cause if they didn't there often wasn't a "second time". |
Like Apollo 1? A simple little spark in a cabin atmosphere unnecessarily high in Oxygen and three men burned up.
These were easily preventable problems but as it is in any complex machine, it's damned near impossible to cover ALL the bases on the first go. There's a lot more than math involved.
The people who designed and built the thing weren't test pilots. They were MUCH better when it came to making the thing and they didn't cover all the bases. Even though NASA seems to put a higher priority on Safety than anyone else you still have to take chances. That's where "the right stuff" comes in. With the low fuel, the computer malfunction and the broken circuit breaker (which could have stranded them on the Moon) all plaguing the Astronauts, I think anything less than the ability to think quickly and calmly might have doomed the entire space program.