undefined | Better HN

0 pointsnoonespecial9y ago0 comments

This is a huge reason the Apollo program succeeded as well. Everyone accepted the fact that the astronauts might not be coming back.

0 comments

4 comments · 1 top-level

dTal9y ago· 3 in thread

That's quite different. The astronauts were small in number and accepted the risks for themselves. It's not as if hundreds of contractors died building the Saturn V itself.

FiatLuxDave9y ago

No, the numbers were much smaller:

http://afspacemuseum.org/ccafs/fatalities/

dTal9y ago

That page is a nice tribute, and a reminder that it's not just about astronauts. Far more people ultimately died on the ground.

However I would note that many of those deaths postdate the Apollo program, and some are only tenuously linked with space travel at all:

"10 June 1981 - Scott Maness, firefighter with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, died at Kennedy Space Center after becoming trapped during a firefight"

derwiki9y ago

But all those contractors on the death star... /Clerks

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse