Many of the astronauts were not merely skilled pilots, but technicians with expertise and advanced qualifications in aeronautical engineering and celestial mechanics. From the very beginning, they recognized that they were placing their lives in the hands of government contractors who were often inventing the technology of space travel as they went along. When asked what he was thinking about when preparing for launch aboard his Mercury-Redstone rocket, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, had infamously replied, “The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder.”
