I guess the people handing out the money are laymen unable to discern science that lies outside the mainstream from crack-pot theories.
Governments probably want to fund all kinds of weird research in fear of missing out on the next atom bomb. But there was a long and rich history of rigorous science leading up the the development of the atom bomb. I imagine the same is true about the development of ICBMs ect.
The Trinity test was 2.5 years after the first man-made self sustaining nuclear reaction and 12 years after the idea of a nuclear chain reaction was first proposed. The R-7 ICBM first flew 13 years after the V2. I'd say nuclear fission developed a lot faster than ICBMs.
I'd peg the beginning of the research that jostmey mentioned at the discovery of radioactivity. The science was already well-underway when research reactors were being built.
Ok. In that case, it took 49 years from the discovery of radioactivity to the production of the atomic bomb. It took 60 years from the development of the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation to the production of the ICBM. Nuclear science still advanced significantly faster than rocket science.
Governments probably want to fund all kinds of weird research in fear of missing out on the next atom bomb. But there was a long and rich history of rigorous science leading up the the development of the atom bomb. I imagine the same is true about the development of ICBMs ect.