Room for exploration, for exploration's sake.

This is an amazing historical artefact.

This is the political sausage getting made around the Apollo Space Program. It will destroy any sense you might have that we funded the project out of a desire for exploration or a long-standing dream of humanity.

Kennedy basically says "I don't care about space". He says the only reason the project is getting funded is because we needed to prove that the American system was better than the Soviet system, even when it comes to giant state-sponsored hero projects.

Kennedy even points out that cancer research and desalination are cheaper and out to be higher priority except for the political expediency of outshining the Soviets. This puts him more in common with the poet of Whitey on the Moon than you might expect.

I like how even back in the 60s, when desalination was horrendously expensive compared to now (where it is moderately expensive), it’s still cheaper than going to the Moon.

That said, I'm all in favour of nations fighting cold wars by engaging in ever-larger feats of inspirational technological and social achievement.