If countries were companies, the Apollo Program would have got a large portion of its funding from the "Marketing" department. Because that's what it was.
It was still money well spent. Far greater returns than all the billions that are sunk in the military each day.
In this particular case, I think it started as a means to show off ICBMs (the Sputnik in particular) and I guess spy satellites. But then the race started and it got out of hand.
If the adversary has already managed to put a satellite up, you don't go and put yours as it would just get you to parity (at a later date even, so you are actually behind!). What you do is you one-up them. What can you put up there that's better than a satellite? People. But they did that too. What do you do then? Let's put people on the freaking Moon, let's see you top that!
Had the USSR managed to land people on the Moon too and this kept escalating, we would have orbital habitats on Europa by now.
It was still money well spent. Far greater returns than all the billions that are sunk in the military each day.
In this particular case, I think it started as a means to show off ICBMs (the Sputnik in particular) and I guess spy satellites. But then the race started and it got out of hand.
If the adversary has already managed to put a satellite up, you don't go and put yours as it would just get you to parity (at a later date even, so you are actually behind!). What you do is you one-up them. What can you put up there that's better than a satellite? People. But they did that too. What do you do then? Let's put people on the freaking Moon, let's see you top that!
Had the USSR managed to land people on the Moon too and this kept escalating, we would have orbital habitats on Europa by now.