Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, a historian and researcher at the CNRS, questions the utility and high cost of sending humans into space, citing a book by Irénée Régnauld and Arnaud Saint-Martin. Early space missions, like Mercury, saw astronauts as potentially disruptive elements, with even basic features like windows being debated due to their perceived lack of necessity for pilots who weren't truly piloting. The human presence in space, as described by pioneer James Van Allen, is seen as a "fabulous nuisance" due to body heat, gases, and the need for heavy, complex equipment that reduces payload capacity. The Apollo program, in particular, faced criticism in the 1970s for its immense cost, consuming up to 4.5% of the US federal budget, and its scientifically questionable results, leading to doubts about the value of manned spaceflight compared to automated probes.