For over half a century, space advocates and presidents alike have tried to recreate the JFK moment of calling on the country to send a man to Moon — but is this a mistake? The classic book Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership argued that it is, and by focusing on presidential power alone advocates set up these initiatives to fail. However, in the decades since its publication, presidential authority has dramatically expanded. In this episode, we examine this tension: Did the success of Apollo create a false expectation about the…
