Back in the early 1980s...
I used to wonder if the only reason why the Reagan administration allowed the Hubble Space Telescope to go foreward was that someone told him we could point it at the Russians from time to time. (For the record, we can't.) At the time, it seemed that the Hubble was the only space science mission that was allowed to continue. I was just as wrong as you were with your cruise missiles comment.
SpaceHab may well be doomed. It happens all too often in the contractor business. Like I said, we live by the contract and die by the contract.