Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun (Bob Ward)

The life of a nearly-forgotten genius. And of our future in Space, and Elon Musk's role in both that and the breaking of the Regime.
The written version of this review can be found here: theworthyhouse.com/2023/11/30...
We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site:
www.theworthyhouse.com
and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here:
theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-...
Video podcasts identical to YT are also available at Odysee and at Rumble:
odysee.com/@TheWorthyHouse
rumble.com/c/c-1747695
Other than at the main site, you can follow Charles here:
/ theworthyhouse
gab.com/TheWorthyHouse
This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated).
"In 1969, when men first landed on the Moon, Wernher von Braun was seen as the herald of, and driving force behind, a brilliant expansionist future for mankind. He was world-famous, in a way that no man can be today, given the fragmented attention of the modern internet-driven globe. But from the perspective of 2023, we can see that even at this apparent apogee, America had already begun its long retreat from Space. No surprise, then, that von Braun’s star has faded. Yet he has never been fully forgotten, and I suspect that among the handful of men who will, or may, make our future, his story is very well known. And for the rest of us, it is worth pondering what his life says about the years to come." . . .

[@deryeoman5013]

I for one welcome my new Muskian overlord.

[@jksmithiii]

Thanks for review. Some comments. 1) On youth, drive and education: Chris Craft, in his delightful "Flight: My Life in Mission Control" commented that all he had was a bunch of kid engineers without terminal degrees who were fresh enough to actually think they could pull it off. And they did. 2) From the engineering perspective, what follows is sorely missing in the F500 world, contributing to their nauseatingly mediocre execution: Managers don't understand the difference between the complicated and the complex, and also think in terms of doing people and not things. Two qualities that tend to be gender specific. 3) Stealing from the scene of Lindbergh speaking to the bankers in "The Spirit of St. Louis," I'm fond of the notion that "we have to know and we have to try." Suggest this should be a mandate for the human race.

[@buenos4799]

The un-meritocracy in the aerospace industry is horrible. Government contract-enforced paperwork takes up more time in every project than real engineering work does. A lot of it even contradicts science, so only mediocre and dishonest people cheer for it. Government bureaucrats micromanage the engineering process through a process called "model-based systems engineering", and another one called "requirements management". This incentivizes companies to promote people with bureaucratic tendencies, over people having engineering talent. They also form mini mafias to further the careers (that they are not qualified for) of their friends. The product and the "customer" suffer as a result. Some people on the right (see comment sections of other videos) are also against meritocracy, someone has to talk to them. There are many alternatives to meritocracy (DEI, cronyism, nepotism, sucking up, bureaucracy, managerialism, cheering for bad processes), all produce low quality results, but all stuff the pockets of undeserving people, they are all different forms of corruption.

[@MisterWebb]

Space is not real. Look at Von Braun’s epitaph.

[@Prometheus7272]

Lol 😂