Oh yes. I watched the filk video that someone linked to in the comments on James' post -- part of the NASA footage was of the control room, with the banks of control gear and all the people needed to make sure that the ship got there and returned home safely.

It really is a team effort -- not just in the number of people needed, but who gets to be first. There were several pairs of climbers in the team that did Everest in 1953, and it was to a certain extent chance that Hillary and Tenzing were the ones who made the try on the day that weather conditions gave them a decent opportunity.