WAPO: Why go to the trouble of running for president to promote ideas that can't work?

[ehrnst]

11. Actually, the Cold War with the USSR is what drove the Space Race

Not idealogical grandiosity. It was certainly sold to the American people with soaring speeches by a young handsome charismatic POTUS.

You may forget that the American people were also told that it was necessary for national security - and that was a big part of them getting on board.

The Space Race refers to the 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (US), to achieve firsts in spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations that occurred following World War II. The technological advantage required to rapidly achieve spaceflight milestones was seen as necessary for national security, and mixed with the symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race led to pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, uncrewed space probes of the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and to the Moon.[citation needed]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race