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> Not nearly as much as it spent in military operations. The entire space program was a military program wrapped in a very successful propaganda program. It s
by DoughnutHole 3y ago
> Not nearly as much as it spent in military operations.
The entire space program was a military program wrapped in a very successful propaganda program.
It showed off US technological and engineering prowess and showed the US as advancing human culture and progress. It also greatly advanced US rocketry and led to rapid advancements in the design of ICBMs and their countermeasures (see Reagan's "Star Wars" programme). The entire space race was motivated by the belief that losing ground to the Soviet Union in spaceflight meant losing real strategic ground in military capabilities - a belief that was probably correct.
- hutzlibu 3y agoThat's true, but it still inspired many people of the concept of peaceful space exploration. And I think it is still amazing, that despite the war, russian tech and US tech and personal are still cooperating in space today, even though that seems to be fading out.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- rbanffy 3y agoThe point of soft power is that you do with propaganda and diplomacy (and also building schools and hospitals) what less clever people would do through war. It's also much cheaper than war and gets us to cool places such as the Moon and Mars. It really should be a no-brainer. The only downside is that it takes a lot longer than war.