Unimpressed by the claims of spin-offs, NASA’s critics conceded only that Apollo had shown what the nation could accomplish if it really tried. A new all-purpose political platitude entered the language: “If this nation can put a man on the moon, then it should be able to . . .” Cure cancer. Stop crime. End poverty. All it would take, many seemed to think at the time, was the same kind of money and commitment that the United States had lavished on Apollo.
