Profit is the foundation of truly sustainable human activity. Christopher Columbus was in it for the money, too. Government can only spend what profit creates, so even government programs like NASA ultimately are feeding from the trough of profit.
It was never for curiosity at the beginning but for military goals.
Is it so noble to lose money?
Putting people on the moon was "lost money"? Only in the strict sense that money flowed into NASA from the Federal budget and did not flow back.
Of course, a lot of that money did flow back, since it went to people who paid income taxes.