[mschuster91]

What use is the stuff that went on 60 years in the past when most people involved with it are dead and a lot of the knowledge has been lost in the meantime?

[delusional]

I don't necessarily think the knowledge is lost, but the second system effect sure is in full swing.

[JumpCrisscross]

It isn’t lost. But it’s decaying.

I remember picking through an aerospace scrapyard in North Hollywood a decade ago with extremely-talented launch engineers (and entrepreneurs). The aim was to look at parts, measure them and figure out why they were built like they were. We looked, a little, at stuff like nozzles. But mostly we focussed on bolts, joiners, turbine blades and the like.

[Koala_ice]

That sounds like living amongst the ruins of the Roman Empire

[JumpCrisscross]

> sounds like living amongst the ruins of the Roman Empire

Down to the fact that the Eastern Roman Empire was going strong.

Even in 2014, when I was in North Hollywood, SpaceX was carrying the torch.