What about the wasted investment on Magellan, Columbus, and other "useless" voyages of discovery.
Who lent the Wright Bros money for flatting about on aeroplanes with no practical purpose?
Isaac Newton, Galileo, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, etc, all spent a lot of time and funding on subjects of curiosity that eventually changed the world and our understanding of it.
Did you know that the Apollo cost was similar to what Americans spent on ice cream over the same period?
Wow ! Did that change technology in so many ways to all our advantage.