It is very easy to conflate the motivations of the individual with the motivations of the institutions they are associated with, and this frequently ends up che

It is very easy to conflate the motivations of the individual with the motivations of the institutions they are associated with, and this frequently ends up cheapening one or the other. Very well put. It would be a mistake to see the space race as something which was "only" about military ambition. It was about different things to different people, and it grew more meanings over time. But, though there are a thousand different histories that can be written about any event, some historical perspectives are more useful than others for answering particular questions. For example, when you ask "how come the country was happy to write NASA a series of blank checks during the 1960s, but not since?" it's valuable to remember the military angle. In the 1960s the development of better space technology was understood to be a matter of life and death for millions if not billions. Now... not so much.