Too materialistic? No.

There’s not a collective pressure like beating the Russians to the moon to rally behind.

Space exploration hasn’t stopped. The James Webb telescope is sending back absolutely incredible images of the universe. Manned missions are still happening to the ISS and in part thanks to that we are learning an the limitations of the human body and just how ill equipped we are when it comes to extended space travel. The scientists / astronauts on ISS lose muscle mass even with extremely vigorous workouts. Our circulatory system is designed to work with / against gravity so in zero G it has to work harder yet it’s a muscle and can have muscle loss.

You can’t simplify it by saying we are too materialistic or selfish. The 80’s (when I was little) was hella materialistic and selfish yet we still had teachers showing nasa rocket launches during school.