Space technology: Apollo: The driver and the driven

The Apollo program has been cited by leaders of Japan's fifth-generation computer project as a perfect model to illustrate how a focused technological project can yield broad benefits far beyond its own mission accomplishments. In fact, it can be argued that the U.S. space program spurred technological advancements in every nation on the globe. Certain advances were necessary to get missions off the ground, so to speak, but those improvements also enabled more sophisticated missions later on. At the same time, these and other triumphs improved the way technology was applied in the commercial sector.