If you are not aware, I recommend you look up the design process for the space shuttle. It is a perfect example of engineering taking a backseat to politics.

If you are not aware, I recommend you look up the design process for the space shuttle. It is a perfect example of engineering taking a backseat to politics. TL;DR version: The original design of the space shuttle was vastly smaller and simpler, but during the cold war the only way you could get something funded was to have a military dual use. So the Department of Defense offered NASA funding so long as they redesign the entire space shuttle to be able to capture and return Soviet satellites to the US -- a task that it never performed -- which required the design to be massively compromised.