National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

What may come as a surprise to those of us who have learned about the great victory of America winning the space race is that the race was won amid critical bombardment about the money being spent and the rationale behind space exploration.

Apologists of outer space exploration tout their collective efforts as the supreme manifestation of human rationality: peaceful, non-partisan, inoffensive, and humanistic. But the historical reality is that its institutional origins are largely irrational.

In the midst of the Vietnam War and the struggle for civil rights and a decade scarred by assassinations, Apollo 11 reminded the world—and the American people—that America, while imperfect, is a great and good nation that can do great and good things.