@stardustmom – the scientists working on space projects do it out of interest … while the politicians mostly fund those projects for imperial (USSR) or anti-imperial reasons (USA). The Apollo missions were the most obvious example. There’s no real scientific reason to send people into space. Robotic exploration is far less expensive. Politicians funded Apollo to prove to the world that we, the USA, were superior to the USSR. All the infrastructure used was funded by the military (e.g. engines, motors, etc) for ICBMs and espionage. Any science gains were side benefits. BTW, if funding Apollo helped defeat the Soviets, which I think it did, then it was worth every penny.
The military funding jump-started a commercial side to space and we’re barely into that era. If it ends up being profitable then you’ll see explosive growth at some point in the future. Right now it’s simply too expensive to get a metric ton into and out of low Earth orbit (LEO). SpaceX is chipping away at that problem but chemical technology will only get us so far. A revolution in Physics is required to get things really going but I don’t expect that in my lifetime!