Part of the problem with that sort of thing was the timing.

The United States (and the world, I suppose, but I'm going to go ahead and give us credit for this one) had just accomplished something that I always consider to be the most impressive achievement in the history of human science / achievement:

Kitty Hawk to the Moon in 70 years.

As a race we had never been able to buid a flying machine before 1900 and within 70 years we were able to build a system to safely (more or less) deliver human beings from the Earth and allow them to walk on the moon, and then bring them home. Nothing we've done before or since has been anywhere near as impressive. The technological leaps forward in such a short time are staggering.

So, you're sitting there in 1970 and you think to yourself, "In the last 70 years we were able to change from a species that couldn't fly at all to one that can walk on the moon. I suppose in the next 70 years we'll make leaps that are just as profound." That was, sadly, very wrong. At least in terms of space exploration.

Hard to fault them for dreaming though.

And, Mr. Bush, I'm still waiting for my manned mission to Mars. I haven't heard much about that in a while.

I think we've made some further pretty profound leaps in the past 70 years. Into a big, stinking cesspool of shit.

Seriously though, that shit's pretty rad. Way cooler than the book of Yes stage props and graphics my roommate has lying around.