[af_vet_rr]

The Russians did have Korolev, and, if the Russian/Soviet mentality had allowed it, they would have made it much closer. But he was hamstrung, and, Did the best he could with the tools he had.

I don't know how accurate this is, but folks I know from the Air Force, and a couple of friends from NASA, have mentioned over the years that Korolev's strengths, at least towards the end, was more in the organizational aspect, and less on the technical side, and it hurt their chances of putting a man on the moon. My impression was that it led to them having a ridiculously complex system that most engineers would assume would fail.

It's odd that the nation that gave us the AK-47 and MiG-15, could produce a rocket with 5 stages, with a base of 30 engines. Maybe it was a case of Korolev getting too many resources. Soviet engineers did their best work when they had severe limitations.

[Conan the Librarian]

Sounds about right. I highly recommend his biography (if you can find it). Read it, then Gene Kranz and throw in Jim Lovell’s book too. GREAT reads.