"Yet in 1961 LOR was a completely insane idea."

It's not that you have to be crazy, it's that most people around you are actually the crazy ones who push conformance on you because they can't hack it.

Innovating is difficult due to many people being so very risk averse. Ideally you have a balance between caution and boldness, however, people lose the will to take chances when the "bottom" line is at risk.

Of course, when it comes to what NASA does, the bottom line also involves human lives. Although, then NASA's existence would have and probably is still considered crazy by some number of people.