The Apollo program budget was immensely large, and the objective was clear: put people on the moon before the Soviet Union.

Artemis objectives are less well defined, more ambitious and with way less money. The big budget is being allocated to brutes killing people in the streets and a decadent ballroom for the emperor. The difference in importance between the two is the cause of all the failures.

And we can't forget the nationalism at the time. Everyone was rallied behind the program and wanting to beat the Soviet Union. I mean, sputnik scared the hell out of everyone.

I think that's probably important framing for how things were reported back then. But also, I'm wrong like 99.9999999% of the time. So!