But it isn't a valid point. This is the part you are missing. If NASA hadn't done what it did you wouldn't have most of the technology we use today. Satellite communications, much of the tech used today in the medical fields, and down to even mundane stuff like microwave ovens. All of that stuff and more came out of the space program as either a direct result or from ancillary research.
Unlike most of the money spent by the Government (not including Defense spending) the money spent at NASA begets all sorts of useful tech because the very nature of operating in an environment where one most create their own power and bring all the things one needs to survive up through the gravity well spurns more efficient system from food prep to energy use and production.
The tech a another trip to the moon as well as building a permanent Base would be worth 10 times more than whatever costs we would incur over the long haul. Not to mention the ability use the resources the moon has to offer. The surface of the moon is coated with H3 which is a highly efficient fuel to run nuke reactors and puts less wear on the system AND reduces the danger of nuke reactor meltdowns by multitudes.
H3 alone is worth the effort of the trip and that is just the beginning. So when you speak of waste when talking about money spent on NASA you are wrong. NASA produced technology that makes our world better stuff you use everyday. Now can they be more efficient no doubt but without NASA blazing the trail just like Columbus did we the USA won't get to the New World. And as Newton said a body either expands or contracts it is never at rest and the USA has no more room to expand on this planet therefore we either find a New World on which to expand and grow and learn or we are doomed to suffer the downward spiral that all great nations of history have met.
Oh and BTW Queen Isabella of Spain was a heavy taxer and (she financed Spain's wars with taxes) but she was smart enough to realize the riches of a New World could be Spain's for the taking if she spent tax money on Columbus's trip to seek out the New World. And it paid off handsomely for Spain in Gold and Silver alone. (Just like our financing of the First Trip to the moon paid off!)
Well, why cant private enterprise do the job that nass has done? I say it very well could have for muvh less money and it would have done only the money making and neccessary. Endlessly flying to the space station and such is a waste and in csse you hsve not noticed, We DO NOT HAVE EVEN THE FRONT MONEY ANYMORE. Therre are plenty of wonerful inventiions, including our cell phones that were made without the government.