Now why would they chose a noob like me?

[terje439]

4Q63

We close down the Pioneer IV programme, and we train unused staff. We also expand our research department. This is a quarter too late, and really a F-up by me. It takes two quarters to complete, so if I had expanded it last turn, I would be able to hire new scientists at the start of the year (you can only hire staff once per year). Due to this, I will have wasted one quarter in terms of the new scientists.

[terje439]

1Q64

Nothing is done this turn.

[terje439]

2Q64

We send a lot of staff to school, and we open a new rocket programme, as our current rockets will be too small to achieve a lunar landing. We go with the Soviet UR-700. The reason is simple, it is as difficult as the US ones to research, has higher payload capability, and it is cheaper. The only thing going for the US ones is a slightly higher max R&D value, but since both are in the 90s, it does not matter much imo.

[terje439]

3Q64

We keep training our staff, apart from that we need to save up some cash again, as we are down to 3k in our budget. Our next expenditures will be a few missions (shortly), and opening our last lunar probe research.

[terje439]

4Q64

We send our flight controllers to school, and we open the Surveyor Lunar Lander programme, although we do not have researchers for it yet.

[terje439]

1Q65

Although we feel that the Ranger3 can be launched now, we lack the funds to do so, so nothing happens.

[terje439]

2Q65

We send our flight controllers to school once more. This means that we have in effect delayed all launches for two quarters.

[terje439]

3Q65

We now have some cash in store, so we wait this turn to allow our flightcontrollers to arrive back from school.

[terje439]

4Q65

We launch the Ranger 3, and we sack two scientists (of those we started with, whose skills are not up to scratch, and too low to be trained).

[terje439]

1Q66

Not the start of -66 we had hoped for. We simply end the turn.

[terje439]

2Q66

All rejoice as the Mercury has its first successful mission.

[terje439]

Game ended due to hdd issues

However, this would not have succeeded, as I was getting too far behind in R&D to complete a lunar landing by -73.
As I see it after this (and a few other playthroughs), you need to get research going asap, preferably 2xRockets, and 3-5 payloads. It does not matter if you have not launched too many missions untill mid 60s, but then you need to get all the lunar probes going to unlock the lunar landing research.