So, an amusing anecdote related to your second paragraph - one reason it's taking so long the second time around is everything has to be repeated. They lost the knowledge of how to make rocket stages and engines of that size, and had to re-learn those lessons.
It's also quite important to remember how many lives were lost (or nearly lost) because of "breaking things" in the Apollo program. Something that's not nearly as acceptable today than it was at the height of the cold war. Something that directly implies moving more slowly and being more sure that everything works the first time, every time.
Seconded. People burned alive until we learned. Surely there is a middle ground that will let us speed up while staying fairly safe, but it's important to remember that outside of software, many rules are written in blood.
I don’t hold a strong opinion either way - in terms of process and documentation versus freestyling it - but that fire was predicted, and I think the concerns were documented.
It can and did happen again, twice, on the shuttle project. Both the O rings and the ice damage were documented.
Ultimately, any process (or lack of process) can be subverted by a bad culture. And unreasonably excessive process - as perceived by the participants - can damage culture as much as not enough.
The problem is that culture is ineffable, so we try to nail it to the ground with whatever we can think of.
It's also quite important to remember how many lives were lost (or nearly lost) because of "breaking things" in the Apollo program. Something that's not nearly as acceptable today than it was at the height of the cold war. Something that directly implies moving more slowly and being more sure that everything works the first time, every time.