But also the path from African human populations to space flight relied on many chance events. The geography had to be just right. Migration had to be easy enough to be possible for stone age people, but hard enough to provide a break from the old ways. The US finally made it to the moon, but that was after two distinct migrations: Africa to Europe and Europe to America. Along the way there had to be enough energy to keep humans from freezing to death in the north, but enough free time to do R&D, for hundreds of years running. The second world war could have wiped us out, because we finished it off with fission bombs, but then stopped using them, but without that experience and the cold war, the Apollo program wouldn't have happened.