Be nice to get back to the topic
The OP contained "Anyone that grew up through the 40's, 50's and 60's were literally bombarded with promises of space travel, flying cars, shopping malls in space, you name it. With billions of planets to choose from the universe was all of a sudden a much bigger place."
I just wonder people with that idea got their information from? The nearest place I can find back there was first of all Flash Gordon and then the Jetsons. I don't think NASA made it sound easy - what the number of rockets that:
Exploded on the launch pad,
Simply became unstable and crashed back close by (watch you head!),
Lost guidance at high altitude and were made to self-destruct
or simply disappeared.
This does not include the numerous engine failures on the test-bed.
No, it's never been easy, of course not helped by the US approach of taking the lowest tender - I probably do them an injustice there, but you get the idea.
We can't really blame Wernher von Braun for all this but:
Gather 'round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun,
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.
Tom Lehrer