The Manhattan project also came to my mind as a counter example and I was disappointed it wasn't addressed in the book.

It could be the exception that proves the rule. Internally you might be able to say it was heavily research driven. And the global resources and brain power attached to the project were unprecedented (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project). Plus there was the motivation of a truly existential level threat. Even given all that it still could have failed.

For some reason I didn't think of Apollo in the same way. Maybe I'm missing the boat on that one.