Comment by SpicyLemonZest

Neither Star Trek nor the Apollo program were popular at the time. The original Star Trek was cancelled after three seasons with no further content produced until a movie revival a decade later; contemporary polls of the Apollo program consistently showed that most people thought it was a waste of money. If (if) SpaceX and Tesla deliver on Musk's dreams, I expect people in the 2050s will wax nostalgic about the 2020s and complain that we can't summon the same spirit of adventure for the Dyson spheres Claude wants to build.