Question

With the advent of the space shuttle program, NASA spent more time on military projects, despite its original mandate as a civilian agency.

Which word from the sentence is the direct object?

Answer 1

The direct object in the sentence is military projects.
Object is a part of a predicte that leads us from the verb as action right to the pruduct of this action. For example : Gary plays basketball every single day. Plays - is a verb which is followed by specific object - basketball, that is directly connected to the predicate.
How to distinguish direct from indirect object? Direct one answers the question "what?" or "whom" whereas indirect answers ''to whom'' and so on.