When I was a little kid in the early 60s, our Cub Scout troop went to Baer Field in Fort Wayne, Indiana where the then fastest rocket on earth, the X-15, was being showcased. And we begged the ordinary ground personnel to give us autographs and they were laughing about how silly it was, but they enjoyed doing it because we thought they were all future astronauts. It’s hard to relay now how the first astronauts truly were idolized. It was about heroism, national pride, and the idealized possible future that stood before us. It was pretty heavy stuff.