[null and void]

(would have loved to have been around then)

I was. It was amazing, simply amazing.

[Mouton]

Yes it was...there were some stumbles along the way like the fire while testing a capsule and some rockets which did not fire off as planned but it clearly demonstrated what can happen when a nation pursues a single goal and applies the fiscal and human assets to get there.

Alas that whole condition is now gone...the engineers disbursed, the space program relying upon another nation to ferry our astronauts and a new goal which has nothing to do with exploration rather the expansion of some Pollyanna view of human coexistence.