I don't doubt you saw something that scared you, but rockets and missiles are literally the same thing barring payload and trajectory and nobody is using bespoke software to puzzle out aerodynamics in 20xx, that's table at the back of the college textbook stuff these days.

NASA didn't even exist until after ICBMs were invented in both the US and the Soviet Union, so idk what y'all are on about. NASA used old ICBM tech to make rockets that weren't for military use. Atlas, an ICBM, is what launched the first US astronauts to space during the Mercury program.

Also Von Braun was a Nazi

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

Atlas is still running and took some folks to space last year, and Braun was imprisoned by Hitler at some point. Still a Nazi, but I have a feeling they didn't quite see eye to eye. In any case, it was either kidnap the German rocket scientists, or let the Russians get to them first. That doesn't mean NASA is Nazi or military. They could make rockets, we couldn't, and even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Impressed that someone knows that Atlas was derived from a missile. Most people don't know that.