"but 47 years ago NASA had spacecraft that brought back samples from the Moon.""
Not only that, but with commercial launchers in competition with each other now, what might we be doing 7 years from now when the samples are due back? Might we have something in say, 5 years that can get out there, snag a sample and be back before this one? Well, I can dream, can't I?
(Yes, I know, shades of the generation ship dilemma in SF where the slowboat gets overtaken on it's multi-century trip only to arrive and finds a long established colony waiting to greet them thanks to advances in propulsion tech.)