Nevertheless, this is one of the biggest achievements in the history of mankind!
It is! Especially if you consider how close it was to the invention of the plane! If we progressed with that kind of speed technologically, who knows where we could be today!
It's always question about finance and vision.
In the time of Moon Landing they had both (because of competition with USSR and Kennedy's vision).
Now, not just US gov. but whole world lucking both aspects needed for fast progress and development.
Exactly. Couldn't have phrased that better! If we took all the money that goes into the US military and gave it to NASA, I guess they could almost build the first warp-engine prototype. I mean the first contact would come about 40 years earlier! We could avert the 3rd World War as well! Oh, and Orion slave girls....