A few days back was the 50th anniversary of JFK's speech in Rice Stadium announcing his goal of sending a man to the moon (and bringing him back alive).
Apparently not everyone was in favor of doing so, a majority was actually against it. Beyond that a great deal of mythology has been built up regarding what was and was not accomplished as a result of the program:
Polls both by USA Today and Gallup
have shown support for the moon landing has increased the farther we've
gotten away from it. 77 percent of people in 1989 thought the moon
landing was worth it; only 47 percent felt that way in 1979.
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon, a process
began that has all but eradicated any reference to the substantial
opposition by scientists, scholars, and regular old people to spending
money on sending humans to the moon. Part jobs program, part science
cash cow, the American space program in the 1960s placed the funding
halo of military action on the heads of civilians. It bent the whole
research apparatus of the United States to a symbolic goal in the Cold
War.
Funny how perceptions of historical events change over time.
