Originally Posted by
TransWorld
...and returning them safely to earth.
When President Kennedy said that in the early 1960's, that plan was not a foregone conclusion.
30 astronauts were selected for Apollo. Afterr killing the Apollo 1 crew without their ever leaving the launch pad the program had several mission failures (Apollo 13 for instance) but no further fatalities. Three dead out of 30Apollo astronauts was a 10% mortality. Not as bad odds as playing Russian roulette even once, but even so...