Iceberg, Right Ahead 215
have been estimated by unofficial sources to be hundreds,
which would make it the worst disaster in the history of
rocket launches.^183
It was the rocket’s flight control system that caused the
accident. But a Chinese military official had found another
cause. “Everybody knows that when you light the rocket
it goes straight up, so, obviously, outside influences had an
effect,” he said.^183
No one said that it’s safe to launch rockets. “We choose
to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not
because they are easy, but because they are hard, because
that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of
our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that
we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone,
and one which we intend to win,” the former US President
John F. Kennedy said.^19
Space travel will always be a risky endeavor, but you
need to take risks to move forward. “In the early days of
aviation there was a great deal of experimentation and a
high death rate,” Elon said. “We don’t want that – the public
would not be accepting – but by the same token we can’t
have a situation where no deaths are ever allowed, because
that would put innovation in a coffin too.”^316
One of the astronauts who sat in the Apollo 1 capsule
was Gus Grissom. A reporter asked him about the risks
of flying a new spacecraft. “If we die, we want people to
accept it,” Grissom replied. “We’re in a risky business, and
we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the
program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.”^352