They could do it time and time again with success. The first electric car was used on the moon during the Apollo 14 (Endeavor and Falcon) mission (Kennedy Space Center).

Meanwhile in Russia

While the space program in the United States was busy becoming a popular culture icon, the Russian space program took on a different personality. They still launched missions for "national prestige" (Wade). However, the majority of Soviet missions were for military purposes. The Soviet economy played a major role in space efforts. The soviet economy was planned in five-year increments, with long-range military plans being made for the next ten years (Wade). This significantly affected the pace of space program development. The Russian space plan was slow to react to American successes.

First generation Soviet launchers had poor reliability. The ten-year plan for the second generation was not approved until 1976 (Wade). Third generation plans were approved...
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