Right! Even taking "return" very literally, the lunar rock samples brought back are incredibly valuable to science. And the spinoff/technological stimulus value

Right! Even taking "return" very literally, the lunar rock samples brought back are incredibly valuable to science. And the spinoff/technological stimulus value of the program is even harder to quantify--consider that during one year, Project Apollo purchased >60% of U.S. semiconductor production. This was a critical early market for Fairchild Semiconductor, e.g. [1] [1]:https://books.google.com/books?id=gXYItzQARVoC&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&dq=apollo+1963+60+percent+chips&source=bl&ots=25jEOr8-_7&sig=ACfU3U197AG7SyxXGyT99LuDEERyvrxG1Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwidnsv0oZ7jAhW8B50JHdmJAvYQ6AEwAXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=apollo%201963%2060%20percent%20chips&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=gXYItzQARVoC&pg=PA127&lpg=...