[nickff]

Modern ICs are much more durable and resistant to ESD than devices from those days; you can run an electronics manufacturing facility (not a semiconductor fab) without much ESD protection these days, whereas that would've been a pipe-dream in the 60s. They are sending consumer and commercial-grade semiconductors into space on satellites with service lives over 12 months these days; back in the 1960s, all satellites required rad-hard components (and had very short service lives). Semiconductors are much better these days, due to improvements in materials, processes, testing, and inspection equipment.