One of my favorite authors is David McCullough. He's written a lot of great biography's including John Adams and the Wright Brothers.
In his biography about the Wright Brothers, he writes about how people (back in the day) were full of skepticism with many not believing that air travel / powered flight was possible. Many believing the Wright Brothers to be either exaggerating or lying about their achievements.
Came across the attached which, to me, was interesting because it has a lot of similar themes or parallel's to the belief in space travel either not being possible or being a lie.
It is known that the Wright Brothers went through many design iterations and failures where they built upon their learnings over time before finally achieving success in air travel.
Similarly, rocket companies such as SpaceX went through many design iterations and failures before achieving consistent success in (for example) re-usable rocket booster landings.
https://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/Aviations_Attic/They_Wouldnt_Believe/They_Wouldnt_Believe_the_Wrights_Had_Flown.htm