In the defense industry, where a project is being built is a critical component of what sort of DoD money goes to it, under the protective eyes of Congresscritters with an electoral stake in bringing home the defense system bacon. Whether such systems work, or are the best to choose from, seems a secondary consideration to where such systems will be built, because that makes constituents happy.
The same is also true with NASA, except it's a lot more ham-handed. So a couple of US Senators[1] have arranged for some big boosts to NASA's budget .. for programs that are operated in their state. But in doing so, they hamstrung other projects that are needed to actually make use of those boosted programs. Because actual NASA space exploration is simply a coincidental byproduct of big NASA spending that benefits one's constituents.
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[1] And, to be fair, the two highlighted in the article are a Republican (Richard Shelby of Alabama) and a Democrat (Barbara Mikulski of Maryland). Pork barrel politics are not confined to just one side of the aisle by any means.
How to land on Mars? Don’t ask NASA—the Senate just cut its test program
Parochial interests trump tech funding when it comes to reaching the Red Planet.
