One difference between solar power and Apollo is that the people in the government who did Apollo were worried about the Soviet Union handing our collective rear ends to us, possibly on a radioactive platter. Key stakeholders knew there were consequences for getting it wrong, e.g. their homes and families potentially getting vaporized.

The subsidies for the Solyndra debacle are still viewed by many partisans as a reasonable price for a laudable attempt to do the right thing, instead of a massive waste of capital. Failure? What's that?