Attribute it to counter-culture/drugs/SJW studies, etc.
Exactly right. The argument was why go and spend all this money with all the problems we have here on earth. There was a counter culture poster with a photo on one of the astronauts on the moon with a big SO WHAT headline above it. That was the attitude of the left. Since it also made the Russians losers in the moon race it was also denigrated.
I think you hit the nail on the head, FRiend.