[rockemsockem]

I certainly agree with the lack of political support, but the American public never supported Apollo. There was a brief moment, right when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, when just over 50% of Americans thought Apollo was a good idea. The rest of the time it was a majority opinion that it wasn't worth it.

[PaulHoule]

This Feb 1968 poll

https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/ipoll/study/31107646/questio...

asked of 58% of people who favored cuts in domestic spending, found 5% of people wanted cuts to "Space technology, Moon Shots, Scientific Research" (compared to 20% in welfare)

However, this one

https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/ipoll/study/31107534/questio...

says 54% of people think the space program is "not worth it" in July 1967 and similar questions around that time get similar results. In April 1970 (after the 1969 success) Harris asks the question

https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/ipoll/study/31107574/questio...

and gets 64% "not worth it".

[imiric]

You're probably right. I wasn't alive nor in the US during that period, so can only infer from what I've seen and read, but I would wager that even the staunchest opponents of the US space program back then couldn't have helped but feel pride of what their country accomplished in such a short time.

And even if the majority opposed it, I still think that overall the amount of supporters then would've been greater than the amount of people who support it today. We're living in a time of ignorance and public disinterest in science that Carl Sagan predicted in the '90s[1], which didn't exist in the '60s. That spirit of optimism was partly what enabled such grand scientific projects, and I think most Americans were deeply moved by the words of JFK in that historic 1962 speech[2].

[1]: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/632474-i-have-a-foreboding-...

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZyRbnpGyzQ