"I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did"
About this Quote
The intent feels less like nostalgia than accountability. Armstrong is pointing at the gap between the Moon-era narrative (“If we can do this, we can do anything”) and the political reality that followed: budgets tightened, risk tolerance collapsed after tragedies, and the space program’s public mandate narrowed from bold exploration to maintenance and symbolism. “By the end of the century” is doing a lot of work, invoking the clean, almost sci-fi timeline many Americans carried in the 1960s - Moon bases, Mars missions, routine spaceflight - and measuring it against a late-20th-century world that chose different priorities.
The subtext is also about how societies metabolize triumph. The Moon landing didn’t inaugurate an unbroken ascent; it became a peak we turned into memorabilia. Armstrong’s phrasing avoids blaming any one administration or ideology, but the critique is embedded: ambition without sustained commitment is just spectacle. In the post-Apollo landscape, technology surged in quieter directions - computing, networks, consumer electronics - while the most visible frontier stalled. That’s why the quote works: it punctures the myth that history naturally accelerates, even when you’ve already proven you can leave Earth.
Quote Details
| Topic | Technology |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Armstrong, Neil. (2026, January 18). I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-fully-expected-that-by-the-end-of-the-century-1001/
Chicago Style
Armstrong, Neil. "I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-fully-expected-that-by-the-end-of-the-century-1001/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-fully-expected-that-by-the-end-of-the-century-1001/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.
