I wonder if the pulls of the Earth and Moon are so strong that they dictate much of the physics. I have no idea, just guessing.

When they were doing the initial simulations back in the 60's, they ignored the moon, figuring they were done with it and it was out of the picture until they were either home, or dead.

That's the difference.

So it's not all that different from religion after all.

Fucking orbits, how do they work?

Nah. This guy not only has a job, but has probably kept it for several years.

Man do you have any idea how iconic that would have been? Everyone on earth with weeks to prepare watching the fireball over the ocean on worldwide TV as it incinerates the Apollo crew they all just watched die in space?

It would have been one of the historic Big Moments of the 20th century, and you'd have seen 1000 pictures and hours of descriptions and 20 movies about it by 2010. It is interesting to know they came within 1 millifuckup of that happening.