I'd like to think that they will continue to be, and that eventually the space programmes will be seen as something more than the waste of resources and political pissing contest that they are all too often written off as. At the end of the day, the people involved directly were doing it for the best of reasons, or so I like to think, even if some of them certainly involved themselves with pretty dodgy causes and/or governments in their efforts to pursue their dreams...
But yes, the Soviet programme was pretty much ridiculously dangerous to all concerned. Poor dogs! Poor cosmonauts! I think Gagarin probably deserved all those medals and stuff just for coming back alive...
no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 07:17 pm (UTC)But yes, the Soviet programme was pretty much ridiculously dangerous to all concerned. Poor dogs! Poor cosmonauts! I think Gagarin probably deserved all those medals and stuff just for coming back alive...