Landsat is one of those (for now, bygone) projects that the US Gov (and EU!) ran to the benefit of basically everyone. Imagine the benefit for any kind of land planning to have access to this data. USGS.gov has tons of soil and topology data, thanks in large part to this program, and essentially free for all.
Other programs we just never think about include NOAA state of the art weather from which all "local weather" is possible, free and open air navigation charts, and free air traffic control. Think about how, scattered across the entire continental USA, there are a dense network of radio towers broadcasting homing signals so that any aircraft can navigate safely without subscription or cost.
And then of course we have GPS.
It's just unbelievable the things we've built and essentially given away for the benefit of humanity. Apolitically, I look forward to an era where we can do that again (without living on borrowed time, if possible).
It is not "given away". It is an investment into economy that I'd imagine pays out very well all things considered.
For those that remember the first iteration of Google maps. The satellite view was all Landsat imagery save for Massachusetts that used their higher resolution public aerial dataset.
Most innovation is military innovation, if only by proxy.
*military and space
The latter often is just for the former but with some PR. Not all but a significant amount. The first US and Soviet astronauts were flying ICBMs. Hubble is leftover spy satellite gear and two more leftover similar satellites were gifted to NASA in recent history. The Space Shuttle was intended to capture foreign satellites for the CIA. The Soviet Union had small space stations that carried cannons. And of course, we both nuked space just to make sure that worked.
Clearly we do a lot more commercial space at this point but the lineage is there.