Without touching the third rail of comparative politics, the following comes to mind. Spaceflight, as imagined and conducted today is wildly expensive. Under NASA policies, when could a Lindbergh be cleared for a transatlantic flight? Testing of his relief tube would probably occupy most of 1933, and wind up costing many times more than the entire Spirit of St. Louis. If space exploration tolerated the risk level of early aviation, I believe that we would have been on Mars long ago.
Dynasoar
Dynasoar