[WalterBright]

The US had ICBMs in the 1950s. The Saturn V was not an ICBM. Staging was not necessary for ICBMs. None of the lunar landing module and equipment was usable for military purposes. NASA was run by civilians, not the military.

[fragmede]

https://wamu.org/story/18/09/12/neil-degrasse-tyson-says-sci...

Don't take my word for it, Neil Degrasse Tyson says "The Apollo 11 Moon Landing Wasn’t Really About Science"

[WalterBright]

Tyson: "Things you’ve never done before that are expensive and dangerous and have uncertain returns on investment are simply not done by corporate entities."

A few seconds of googling turned up:

"Robert Peary’s North Pole Expedition (1909): Backed heavily by the National Geographic Society and The New York Times, alongside wealthy private investors like J.P. Morgan"

Many other exploratory expeditions were funded by both private interests and governments, such as the first transatlantic cable.

Tyson: "when we learned the Soviet Union was not going to the moon, that we just ended it all."

I lived through those times. There were several followup moon landings, but the audience grew bored with it, and so Congress cut the funding.

Tyson is an authority on science, but for anything else he isn't more authoritative than you or I.

BTW, I've read multiple books on the Apollo program. The idea it was run or funded by the military is false. Yes, the astronauts were Air Force test pilots. You know why they were selected? Because test pilots have the perfect skill set to be astronauts. And it paid off handsomely as Armstrong saved two missions from disaster.

[bumby]

Also, Armstrong gave up his military commission before he was an astronaut. NASA wanted to make it clear the moon landing was not a military operation by having a civilian commander of Apollo 11.

[bumby]

I think you’re making a logical leap. Geopolitics!= military.

The Apollo program (even according to NDT) was geopolitically motivated which isn’t necessarily the same thing as being militarily motivated.

[rglullis]

Run by civilians, but the funding would never come if the government didn't have military interest.

[bumby]

NASA is a prestige organization. If there isn’t a peer rival there is little to gain from funding that prestige. Whether that is for the betterment of society is up for debate.