When it comes to the moon landing or the ISS... Of course you can say that's because we're explorers. The moon landing was pure survival (don't let the commies win), ISS is research and maybe the researchers put in the effort for a sense of discovery but the money comes from governments and it flows mostly because of a promise of economic or military advancement.

I'm not a cynic in that regard. I love the architecture of religious monuments, I love the fact that we as a species achieved magnificent things like reaching the moon or discovering how black holes work. You can appreciate all of that without kidding yourself about where the money comes from.