I think the proper narrative in the rocket alignment post is “We have cannons and airplanes. Now, how do we land a man on the Moon”, not just “rocketry is hard”:
We’re worried that if you aim a rocket at where the Moon is in the sky, and press the launch button, the rocket may not actually end up at the Moon.
So, the failure modes look less like “we misplaced booster tank and the thing exploded” and more like “we’ve built a huge-ass rocket, but it missed its objective and the astronauts are en-route to Oort’s”.
I think the proper narrative in the rocket alignment post is “We have cannons and airplanes. Now, how do we land a man on the Moon”, not just “rocketry is hard”:
So, the failure modes look less like “we misplaced booster tank and the thing exploded” and more like “we’ve built a huge-ass rocket, but it missed its objective and the astronauts are en-route to Oort’s”.