Last night I was watching For All Mankind, which -- as far as I've watched -- has had an explicit theme that NASA was overcautious and should have risked lives.
I remembered a science fiction novel -- I think by Niven -- that had a whole rant about NASA being overcautious and spending too much on safety. And that was a common rant among conservative science fiction people.
I read it shortly before the Challenger explosion.
futurebird