Yes, it was very incremental. They even sent the orbiter around the moon on a mission before even attempting to land. And there were a number of other tests (manned and unmanned), and even ones without an official Apollo designation.
I assume to have those two directions as two camps in your company, fighting each other generates the most optimal result. If you fail, the cautious camp wins and carefull analysis and slow methodic itteration become stronger.
If you win, the move fast team takes over and pushes towards new exploration data and scaling up towards new problem areas.
Pre-sputnik and pre-Gagarin, the US approach to space exploration was conservative, and my understanding is that Braun was pushing for a less cautious approach [1]. One issue was apparently a reluctance to lean too heavily on 'Nazi' technology. This caution contrasted with the US' approach to airplane development, which had a lot of moving fast and breaking things (and people.)
Ironically, if von Braun had got what he wanted then, there may have been no Moon race and no Apollo program.
[1] Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon, Mike Gray, ISBN 978-0393325133
LifeLiverTransp|8 years ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun#NASA_career
I assume to have those two directions as two camps in your company, fighting each other generates the most optimal result. If you fail, the cautious camp wins and carefull analysis and slow methodic itteration become stronger.
If you win, the move fast team takes over and pushes towards new exploration data and scaling up towards new problem areas.
mannykannot|8 years ago
Ironically, if von Braun had got what he wanted then, there may have been no Moon race and no Apollo program.
[1] Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon, Mike Gray, ISBN 978-0393325133
provost|8 years ago
So are you refuting that the missions were incremental? Because if you look at the mission outcomes, they certainly were..