October 10, 1968: On the eve of the launch of Apollo 7, Wernher von Braun talks to NASA employees and contractors and suggests talking points whenever they are asked, “What is all this space exploration good for? How does it benefit us when there are many other problems?” 1/5

Von Braun says the space program is keeping American industry sharp by pushing cutting-edge technological progress; challenging it to do things never attempted previously. He cites the example of microelectronic medical monitoring devices invented for the astronauts. 2/5

Looking forward, he sees a day when average Americans may wear medical monitoring devices that will download personal data to a computer that will analyze it and, should an anomaly be detected, send a report to the patient and a medical specialist to schedule an appointment. 3/5

“I could quote a thousand such examples,” von Braun tells his audience. He stresses the value of a culture of technological perfection and how perfection can become a contagious disease, especially when one is competing against another rival striving to reach the same goal. 4/5

It’s a fascinating moment in the Apollo saga, not only for its prescient vision of medical smart devices fifty years in the future, but because von Braun was well aware that the next day should the Apollo 7 launch fail, it would have been the likely end of the lunar program. 5/5

Here's a link to the audio recording of von Braun's talk as it appeared in Richard Jurek's piece for Air & Space. @rjurek https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/what-value-space-program-180955720/