Why are billions getting spent on exploring space and its planets?

On October 4 1957, Sputnik 1 became the first satellite to be launched by humans, inaugurating the space age. On April 12 1961, Yuri Gagarin, onboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft, became the first human in space. The Apollo 11 spaceflight, which on July 20 1969, achieved its goal of landing the first humans on the Moon, was arguably one of the most memorable events in 20th-century space exploration. On April 25 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was placed into orbit by crew members of the space s