Not bio, but geez, what's up with the rocket scientists?

Okay, falling foam chunks. Seems like such a small thing...

I just made the mistake of getting the old movie "The Right Stuff," which I had always wanted to see, only to discover it was a very poorly made movie. Plot was rambling; acting was okay but when you have a crappy script, what can you do? Anyway, what I can't figure out is--since that was over 40 (yes, FORTY) years ago in the 60s--we could put guys in space on a regular basis back then and yet, with all the supposed advances in technology and science in those many decades, how come we can't even keep the foam on the rockets these days?

So much for the old debunker, "This ain't rocket science."