>>10140556Necessity is the mother of invention. At the time, the US was fighting a tech race with other superpowers diametrically opposed to the US. The culture of the space age grew out of fear. Space was explored, not just to explore, but to see what kind of weaponization could unfold.
There's a quote by Corneliu Codreanu that will also help explain why we haven't been back.
>"Democracy prevents the politician's fulfillment of his obligations to the nation. Even the most well-meaning politician becomes, in a democracy, the slave of his supporters, because either he satisfies their personal interests or they destroy his organization. The politician lives under the tyranny and permanent threat of the electoral bosses. He is placed in a position in which he must choose between the termination of his lifetime work and the satisfaction of the demands of party members. And the politician, given such a choice, opts for the latter."The state has no reason to return or to apply pressure in space advancements. The populace is more focused on themselves than about the exploration and exploitation of space, and thus, so must the statesmen. We are also highly capitalistic, and there is very little short-term profit in space.