Yes they did!
Big government institutions tend to have no corporate memory.
Also ever since the demise of Apollo NASA has looked for something “sexy” to do. Flying a low earth orbital space-truck like the shuttle wasn’t cutting it. So it latched on to environmental cultism to give it something to do.
Not as an operational organization... Although "created" legally in October 1958, there were just a few dozen people at laboratories (like NRL) around the U.S. who would be tasked with getting the organization functional over the next couple of years... It was one of the fastest, most exciting, and, for a few decades, successful peace-time technology programs the government has ever started...
However, the government never saw anything "excellent" it couldn't, with great efficiency, turn "mediocre" or "piss-poor"...