re: #147 Bobibutu

That was the political gun to the head of congress. In Spades.

Yes. I would say it was the primary motivating factor. Of course it was born as NACA (more or less) under Eisenhower and eventually was taken to the moon under the influence of Kennedy. Nixon brought it back down to near Earth orbit around 1972.

Regardless of the motivations there was a certain can-do attitude back then that we’ll never see again. Maybe it will return.