re: 2 Astronauts Survive Russian Rocket Failure on their way to ISS

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That shows how much technology has advanced; I can’t imagine that would have been a survivable incident back when space travel was an event.

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The Saturn V had abort modes to save the crew from the moment they locked the door to orbit. How high and fast they were moving would determine the nature of the abort and how and where they'd get back to the ground. Barring a catastrophic explosion after the Launch Escape System was jettisoned, the crew would survive most emergencies. Before the LES was jettisoned, even explosions were survivable, as the vehicle's computer would sense an explosion and trigger the LES rockets to pull the crew away from an exploding launch vehicle.

Also, the Soyuz rocket system that failed is older than the Saturn V.

Crew safety was built into those rockets. You have to get into the ho-hum of the Space Shuttle before you start to really get unsurvivable situations due to launch vehicle failure.