We have had submarines since essentially the Civil War, underwater pressurized dives suits since before then. ballistic rockets took massive leaps in technology since the V2 and the development of ICBMs right after that.
The bones of a moon landing were always there. The Cold War assisted in the technological leaps of rocketry and geo-positioning (Operation Paperclip). Coupled with an intense rivalry over landing on the moon, and it makes sense that a country would poor time and resources into sending a few people to the moon.
Why do it now though? is this related to future manned space flights to mars etc?
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