I know it won't be very popular to say here, but it is entirely understandable that we never went back to the moon after Apollo. Sending humans to the moon (and arguably space at all) has almost no value. The purpose of the moon landing was about geopolitical imagery. The USA and USSR were competing for dominance in the new field of space travel. Once the moon landing was complete, it was just a very expensive (and dangerous) boondoggle and the political will for it largely died out. It should not be lost on anyone that after 50 years of bullshit excuses we are now likely going back. The reason for that is that the Chinese will soon be there, and if not for that we would not be going.

There is a difference between "lost technology" (like we somehow forgot the basic principles) and just no longer making a really complicated machine that has almost no other use. The Saturn V still holds the record for the largest payload delivered to LEO. Unless you are a full "space is fake" person, we have been sending payload to LEO continually since Apollo. There is just no reason to use something like Saturn V when we can launch twice if we have that much to send up.

Again, I know I will get a lot of flack for this, but the reality is that the moon landing is one of the most pointless things imaginable. This is why we stopped going and very quickly all the "institutional knowledge" that was learned during Apollo was lost. Within 25 years, half the people who worked on Apollo had likely retired.

Unless you think Artemis II was a complicated CGI hoax that went on for a week, then we have been back to the moon. In fact, Artemis II broke the distance record that had been in place since Apollo 13. Not landing the first time is not some big tell, it is normal. Apollo 8 did not land either.

I know it won't be very popular to say here, but it is entirely understandable that we never went back to the moon after Apollo. Sending humans to the moon (and arguably space at all) has almost no value. The purpose of the moon landing was about geopolitical imagery. The USA and USSR were competing for dominance in the new field of space travel. Once the moon landing was complete, it was just a very expensive (and dangerous) boondoggle and the political will for it largely died out. It should not be lost on anyone that after 50 years of bullshit excuses we are now likely going back. The reason for that is that the Chinese will soon be there, and if not for that we would not be going.

There is a difference between "lost technology" (like we somehow forgot the basic principles) and just no longer making a really complicated machine that has almost no other use. The Saturn V still holds the record for the largest payload delivered to LEO. Unless you are a full "space is fake" person, we have been sending payload to LEO continually since Apollo. There is just no reason to use something like Saturn V when we can launch twice if we have that much to send up.

Again, I know I will get a lot of flack for this, but the reality is that the moon landing is one of the most pointless things imaginable. This is why we stopped going and very quickly all the "institutional knowledge" that was learned during Apollo was lost. Within 25 years, half the people who worked on Apollo had likely retired.

Unless you think Artemis II was a complicated CGI hoax that went on for a week, then we have been back to the moon. In fact, Artemis II broke the distance record that had been in place since Apollo 13. Not landing the first time is not some big tell, it is normal. Apollo 8 did not land either.

I know it won't be very popular to say here, but it is entirely understandable that we never went back to the moon after Apollo. Sending humans to the moon (and arguably space at all) has almost no value. The purpose of the moon landing was about geopolitical imagery. The USA and USSR were competing for dominance in the new field of space travel. Once the moon landing was complete, it was just a very expensive (and dangerous) boondoggle and the political will for it largely died out. It should not be lost on anyone that after 50 years of bullshit excuses we are now likely going back. The reason for that is that the Chinese will soon be there, and if not for that we would not be going.

There is a difference between "lost technology" (like we somehow no longer know the basic principles) and just no longer making a really complicated machine that has almost no other use. The Saturn V still holds the record for the largest payload delivered to LEO. Unless you are a full "space is fake" person, we have been sending payload to LEO continually since Apollo. There is just no reason to use something like Saturn V when we can launch twice if we have that much to send up.

Again, I know I will get a lot of flack for this, but the reality is that the moon landing is one of the most pointless things imaginable. This is why we stopped going and very quickly all the "institutional knowledge" that was learned during Apollo was lost. Within 25 years, half the people who worked on Apollo had likely retired.

Unless you think Artemis II was a complicated CGI hoax that went on for a week, then we have been back to the moon. In fact, Artemis II broke the distance record that had been in place since Apollo 13. Not landing the first time is not some big tell, it is normal. Apollo 8 did not land either.