Might also have been an attitude like a lot of people have today, along the lines of :
Let’s build something that works repeatably for trivial stuff under laboratory conditions first, to see what that tells us about the fundamental capabilities and limitations. We can spec out a control mechanism resilient enough to keep working in the field once someone’s actually planning a full-scale prototype.
Might also have been an attitude like a lot of people have today, along the lines of :