Cost is only the most obvious drawback to space exploration. There are others that may be even more important.
1. Rocketry, precise navigation and control, automation and the supporting materials and logistics developed to support space exploration are of immense military value. Thus they all participate in threatening human beings with war, extortion, and oppression.
2. The space race was brought about as a means to deliver nuclear weapons to any target on the globe. Putting men on the moon was little more than a public relations spin by romanticizing exploration, and downplaying the military aspect.
3. It is a distraction from the very real problems on earth, which might be solved were it not for money and public attention being focused elsewhere - in space.
4. The space race was elitist in nature, demanding the very best and brightest to compete for glory, thus denying it to those with less talent in technical areas. The resentment it generated emerged as anti-intellectualism and anti-nerd / anti-geek mentality which probably afflicts our (U.S.) schools and society even today. It is possible that the demand for competition and excellence resulted in an actual dumbing down of American society.
5. It politicized big science. Previously, most of science was either affordable, or was conducted in the halls of academia. The space race threw tons of money at the problem, forcing the infrastructure for research and development to leap out of the (price) range of individual investigators and universities. Big science is now at the fiscal mercy of politicians and corporations, who demand return on their investment (political or profitable technology), and do so at the expense of pure research and broader understandings of nature.
One should easily be able to greatly expand this list. So I shall leave room for the observations of others.
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