In the 1960s, scientists and engineers and in particular the explorer-astronauts became archetype American heroes. Not only were these people the vanguard of the Cold War, but they were explorers following in the steps of Lewis and Clark. Many currently practicing scientists and engineers, most involved in fields not even related to space research, were first enticed into their professions by the scientific excitement generated by the Space Program. It is impossible to follow all the scientific ripples created and all the commercial products contrived as a consequence of the heroic effort to travel to the moon. There are certain enterprises that we can only pursue collectively.
Space exploration is one.
In the jaded 1990s the conventional wisdom among scientists is that manned space flight takes funds away from purely scientific research. However, this is not an either or proposition. Frankly, without the manned spaced program, particularly in the 1960s, scientific missions would not have been considered. Ending manned space flight would save money, but it is a virtual certainty that such funds would not end up in scientific research. While the country has experienced twenty years of growing prosperity, it has devoted fewer research dollars, both in a relative and absolute sense, on space exploration.