That old saying about “never meet your heroes” rings true.

Great book I stumbled on about the space race in the 1960’s:

“Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest” - Gerard J. Degroot.

I still love the space race and the accomplishments, but this book does a great job popping some of the myths and sheds light on the enormous amounts of waste that went down.

“There are no bucks without Buck Rogers” - a common phrase at the time that cynically acknowledged the whole space race was enthusiastically embraced by the public because they were sold impossible narratives (space colonies, alien life, et al).

It was embraced by corporations and politicians because it increased opportunities for power and profits.

Artemis doesn’t benefit from this narrative, which is why so few care about it. Manned space exploration is insanely expensive and stupendously impractical.

Very cool though. I’d like to see a launch before it gets shut down when the national credit card gets taken away.