I guess, military personnel (that astronauts so far have basically been) are less skittish in that regard than civilians.
Especially since it is understood that space travel is dangerous, while air travel is regarded as safe.
back
1 comments
According to Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 only had a "50–50 chance" of landing safely on the Moon's surface. They're willing to take enormous risks.
That might be out of context. There were a whole lot of points where the mission could have been safely aborted had any parameter been unacceptable. Look at Apollo 10, which was identical to 11 except for turning around when the lander was a few km above the surface. Failure to land does not mean a risk to safely. The risk wasn't survival, it was failing to complete the primary mission objective.
You might be right. Apparently, he thought they had a 90% chance of getting back safely to Earth.
It's one of the things you have to take into account for being one of only twelve human beings to walk on the surface of the moon.
I'd love to think that I would be able to do it, and whenever I get the slightest skittish on a plane, I laugh that I don't think I would hack it.