As it turns out, failure is an option:
During a panel discussion with other Apollo flight directors in Houston, Kranz was asked how NASA accomplished so much, so quickly, in the 1960s and early 1970s, but hasn't been back to deep space since then. By some accounts, in the decades following the Moon landings, NASA has succumbed to a "mind-numbing" bureaucracy and a "paralyzing" cultural requirement for perfection, especially after two space shuttle accidents. Kranz said NASA benefited from a different culture in the 1960s.
"It was an environment in which we were more capable of accepting risk as a nation," Kranz replied. "Space involves risk, and I think that's the one thing about Elon Musk and all the various space entrepreneurs: they're willing to risk their future in order to accomplish the objective that they have decided on. I think we as a nation have to learn that, as an important part of this, to step forward and accept risk."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:45PM
Adventure, Risk and Innovation go together. They are even the subtitle of this autobiography, http://www.bentleypublishers.com/milliken [bentleypublishers.com]
Reviews include: http://www.bentleypublishers.com/automotive-reference/history/equations-of-motion-paperback-edition/reviews.html [bentleypublishers.com]
Vanity Fair - March, 2008, by Jay Leno
Equations of Motion: Adventure, Risk and Innovation
By William F. Milliken (Bentley)
Bill Milliken is an engineer, and he wrote the book at age 95. He was practically there when Lindbergh took off. It"s just a fascinating look at motion through the 20th century.