In Gordon James's paper "The representation Theory of the Symmetric Group" he says
"The author was once told that the Littlewood–Richardson rule helped to get men on the moon but was not proved until after they got there."
I was curious to know if this is true. Do the Littlewood-Richardson coefficients show up in calculations of the type that would be needed to plan a trip to the moon? I realize that there is a lot of mathematical work that goes into getting men to the moon. So, it may be that the answer is 'Probably, but who knows where.' But, is there an obvious or integral part of the process that requires the rule?