When I was 8, my dad took me to see a sneak preview of 2001; A Space Oddessy.
I was enchanted by the whole thing, and went on to read sci-fi, do the Trekkie thing and watched every mission.
The day Challenger broke up, I was baby-sitting for a friend's geeky son. We held each other and sobbed.
2001 was a year I SO looked forward to as a child! I KNEW I would be "old" (41! LOL! ) when it rolled around, but when I was a kid, I was CONFIDENT that we would at least have a colony on the moon, and maybe more.
Instead, we lost our groove, gave up on space, ( mostly through cheapness and a lack of discipline ) and got Islamist Savages killing a bunch of folks instead.
Talk about shattered illussions!
Now I am NOT saying the two phenomenon are related... Had we kept up with the Space Program they would still hate us... but perhaps we could have used the new tech to increase our security or develop new weapons.
Tia
I was about 9 when Dad took me to see it. It Rocked my world.