content: so what happened to it?   No great conspiracy or anything like that.     and arent able to replicate the feat.  Isn't about ability. It's about desire and will. Anyone who had those qualities has been ground up and spit out. Like all government programs ... eventually the bureaucracy ate itself. In the 60's, risk was rewarded. Today, risk is punished.  At NASA, you won't get in trouble for playing it safe ... so long as your paperwork is in order.  I'm using VERY broad strokes here.  But, engineering managers in the NASA cities know that long term NASA engineers are cancer.  And, young engineers who work for NASA (or for contractors) know that more than 2-3 years on your resume will be career suicide.    There are obvious exceptions to the rule.  A few dreamers who are passionate about space and can ignore the bureaucracy.  But, most have fled.  The private space industry (satellite programs, unmanned missions, etc) is thriving in the US.