The 1955 direct flight rocket argument reminds me of Kaysings argument that a 1959 paper said a flight to the Moon was impossible.
I got the same impression, although there is an important difference.
Von Braun's comment is attributable. We can discover when he wrote it, why, and in what context. Kaysing simply reports the findings of a report he says exists, but we cannot see. Assuming it did exist, that still prevents us from evaluating its assumptions and methods. We can know what von Braun was thinking of, and whether it applies to Apollo or not.
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