In article ,
h (Rand Simberg) wrote:

Yeah, they had a lot of ideas back then that turned out quite
unrealistic -- not in terms of physics and engineering, so much as in
economics and politics.

They weren't unrealistic. We could have. If we'd wanted to...

Well, "if we'd wanted to" is a political condition, is it not?

Von Braun was speaking from the standpoint of technical capability,
not political sustainability.

Well, I certainly can't argue with that. But since the OP started this
thread by pointing to the article without comment, I could only surmise
that he was trying to make some point, such as "look, von Braun said we
could be on Mars by 1982, why the heck aren't we there yet?"

Best,
- Joe