What's key to a nation's development is education. Emabarking on these kinds of enterprises provides just that: it developes the knowledge, expertise and capabi

What's key to a nation's development is education. Emabarking on these kinds of enterprises provides just that: it developes the knowledge, expertise and capabilities of both individuals and institutions in fields like computing, electronics, mechanical engineerig not to mention softer skills like project management, international relations and so on. Additionally these kinds of endeavours promote national pride and inspire schoolchildren to study science. And finally, snarky for sure (assuming you're american), but people in glass houses etc. America has a large population of poor yet still finds room to spend 500bn a year on defense (whilst only a paulty few cents for NASA)