Eli5: “Why do spacecraft keep exploding, when we figured out to make them work ages ago?”

Question

I know its literally rocket science and a lot of very complex systems need to work together, but shouldnt we be able to iterate on a working formular?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Your question implies we ‘solved’ space flight in 1961. We didn’t. We couldn’t even land a rocket until a few years ago. We still can’t put anything larger than a van on the moon. We’re at the beginning, not the end.