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jgtroshyesterday at 11:00 PM1 replyview on HN

This went both ways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Osoaviakhim


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godwinson__4-8yesterday at 11:22 PM

Yes a good thing to point out, however the American initiative was more successful, was it not?

Largely because raw numbers aside, most of the top talent wanted to avoid the Soviets and thus the US was the only logical option. That is, part of what made the American job on this easier is top German talent anticipated some "Operation Osoaviakhim" (or worse) scenario and thus sought out the US as the only way to get out ahead of it.

von Braun made major contributions to NASA. My understanding is relatively speaking, the Soviets got the scraps. Not that it made no impact, but just to say the impact of the Germans on the American space program should not be understated, and I don't think it would be accurate to assess the fruits of these two competing operations as equivalent.

von Braun and others had a major hand in the Saturn V. Who did the Soviets manage to seize of equal caliber?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun

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