I would've thought USSR would've done it by the 70s if not before Amerika, but it's been 60 years since and no one has done it so far. In fact, it's likely it'll be Amerikans who're back on the moon again before anyone else. WTF is going on here?
I would've thought USSR would've done it by the 70s if not before Amerika, but it's been 60 years since and no one has done it so far. In fact, it's likely it'll be Amerikans who're back on the moon again before anyone else. WTF is going on here?
As I mentioned in another comment, I think underestimating the power of the flex is dangerous. The flex allowed Amerika to proclaim itself and capitalism as totally poggers and awesometacular for decades. In marxist terms, it might be non-productive labor, but it facilitated a lot of productive labor otherwise (in increasing people interested in space and science and nasa at the very fucking least).
Affording space exploration is pretty dependent on the spoils of empire, and justifying it to a population whose standard of living was declining by that point would have been pretty hard for the Soviets. I'm not particularly read up on what the Soviet intentions were after the US' moon landing in '69, but I know Brezhnev was previously in charge of their space program and probably had a pretty good grasp of how much commitment would be required and whether those resources were better used dealing with the immediate threats.
I'd describe it as closer to pure research. No immediate applications, but plenty of useful technologies got their start in the space race.