The decision to cancel the US SST was based on economics, (proved correct) and environmental damage to the ozone.
Wow, the US was worried about the ozone layer 30 years before Kyoto...
That's right, the US invented atmospheric science.
"The Boeing 2707-300 was chosen over the Lockheed L2000 as the USA's new supersonic airliner design. It was never built though due to a change in environmental factors (the fuel crisis caused kerosene to become expensive and the protests over the pending Concorde flights into New York and Washington). Also Boeing were still fighting with increasing problems over the complex and over-ambitious design. In 1971 the American SST project was cancelled."That's right, it was just about economic and environmental concerns. Nothing to do with the fact that it wasn't actually working.
And besides, the moon shot "wasn't economical". Since when has economics mattered in terms of international prestige? The fact that Britain and France
chose to heavily subsidise Concorde tells you something about that. They did it for the prestige, not because of economics.