What did the average person know about space travel in the decades leading up to the Space Race / Sputnik / Apollo 11?

hi! not discouraging other responses, but this question may be worth x-posting to /r/AskScience or /r/Space; meanwhile, here are some previous posts that may be interesting (I know I'm missing a few, so if anyone remembers more, do add them in a reply - thx!)

At what point in time did we realize that exploration of space could be a real possibility? How much did we actually know about space before actually being able to go there physically or sending a probe? What was the very first thing sent into space?
When did we first know the properties of space?
When did we discover that there is no breathable air on the moon?
Before the launch of the first satellites, how did scientists know that there was no gravity/oxygen in space?
What did the world think about "walking in space" before humans actually went there? Were there any popular but crazy predictions?

e: found a couple more

Before Americans sent a man to the moon in 1969, what did people believe was on the moon? Did they believe it was inhabited by anything? Did they believe the composition of the moon was different (e.g. moon made of cheese)?
in 1924 if you mentioned to someone (someone from the Anglo sphere) the words either “spaceship” or “space- alien” do you think it's likely (more than 50-50) that you would have had to explain the concept to them before going on?