Congress gutted the NASA budgets between 1968-1972.
Thomas Paine was courageous to offer Congress and
the American people an ambitious [expensive] space project
package after Apollo 11...But he was naive.
We know he wanted to see a LEO 50-man spacestation, plus a moonbase,
plus a manned mission to Mars before 2000.
Spiro Agnew tried to push the idea.
The public and Congress weren't buying.
They gave NASA executives a rude shock instead.
They gutted NASA's budget in the following 4 years.
In a panic, NASA had to settle for an underfunded space shuttle project
instead.