It would probably be more correct to say there is no incentive. Gemini and Apollo had a nice one - the space race, more specifically, the fear of being bombed

It would probably be more correct to say there is no incentive. Gemini and Apollo had a nice one - the space race, more specifically, the fear of being bombed into oblivion from orbital stations without being able to do anything about it. There's just not much incentive today, it makes business sense to use that funding as long as possible.