To summarize all of what you wrote, you say the motive is, like the others say: ego. I don't believe it.

We're going to disagree on this one. The word "ego" is an oversimplification of the effect I'm talking about. Kennedy, when he started this project, made a categorical declaration: We're going to the moon within 10 years. He staked the reputation of the U.S. government and political economy on that statement. It's not about the ego of the men involved. They created the dynamic that if the government didn't accomplish what was laid out, it was a categorical failure. The blow to the prestige of the U.S. in that environment should not be dismissed. Remember, they were getting their asses quite kicked in southeast Asia at the time as well. They viewed this not as their personal failure, but as the failure of the country's technological capacity to do what they set themselves to doing. In their minds, the myth of American greatness was threatened. Empires cannot continue to grow if the world does not see them as the most powerful group on the block, and the United States has been an empire since WWII (longer actually, but post WWII, it's quite explicit). It's this kind of belief structure which leads people to decisions like the ones this group of people took.