NASA had to adjust to that cruel reality.
It's sort of a house of cards in the sense that all of the hopes for human space flight have been pinned on that station. And if they can't complete it, it's an enormous investment whose potential will be unrealized.
They met the challenge. They met it beautifully. The energy that flowed through NASA at that time, the excitement, the adrenaline, it all stemmed from the fact that space had become very crucial to the nation's reputation and strength in the world.
I can tell you with some degree of confidence that in the next millennium we'll see human beings walk on other planets and even perhaps go to other stars.
What will ever replace the Cold War as a driver and the impetus for doing these big space explorations?
NASA never really adapted to that new paradigm.
It was like telling a high school team that in eight years they were going to have to win the World Series. It's not impossible but not something that you would necessarily think they could do.
The big difference between NASA of the '60s and NASA of the '90s is that in every way NASA was a young organization back then, ... not only in a demographic sense but also in terms of the life of the agency.
The flight controllers, the people who manned the trenches in mission control, these were kids. They were in their 20s and 30s. And they were controlling a moon mission.
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