Ide have to say that if you think that military doesn't have its hands deep in the pie of nasa then you must be dreaming
do you think that the JPL are working on the cutting edge of ion and pulse drives.? the implicatoins of using such technology in military might would be domination.
Pretty much back in the earlier part of the 20th century when the spit fire came to the fore i think it was, it was domination. like net wolf said, its all about conquests of powerful men. Its only in the days of information aka internet, foxtel, international journalisim that we even know about anything.
Remember how we got mobile phones, laptops, efi cars, Nasa, why was Nasa formed, like net wolf suggests from the cold war. so i guess this is just another step. Think of what these brilliant minds could do with a few extra trillion in the burner??? Im all for it if it makes the advancements of the world.... it doesn't matter who does it