Von Braun was convinced that rotating wheel space stations would be needed to prevent physiological problems associated with space and were thus ‘as inevitable as the rising sun’. The architects of the International Space Station (ISS), the largest space structure ever built, tackled this packing problem by flying up habitable modules in parts and assembling them in space. The Langley team’s vision of artificial gravity space stations was sidelined by Apollo program priorities, which shifted budgets and administrative focus away from other projects, including space stations. Mueller, NASA’s Associate Administrator and head of the Office of Manned Space Flight, was both a champion of space stations and a shrewd leader. Instead, it adopted a more incremental and sequential approach to space technology development, focusing on the Space Shuttle, and dropping crewed space stations.