Space historians explain why it took the US more than 50 years to return to the moon
Space historians explain why it took the US more than 50 years to return to the moon
MARY KEKATOSWed, April 8, 2026 at 9:45 PM UTC
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The Artemis II crew completed a historic lunar flyby this week, becoming the first astronauts in nearly 54 years to visit the moon.
The crew broke the record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth and saw more of the far side of the moon than anyone has witnessed.
Given the more than half a century since NASA sent a crew on a moon mission, many are wondering: why did it take so long to return?
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Astronomy experts and space historians told ABC News that the U.S. has always has the technological capabilities to return to the moon, but factors including cost and shifting priorities have delayed a lunar mission.
"Ultimately, the main reason it's taken so long is it's cost a lot of money," Patricia Reiff, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University in Houston, told ABC News. "When we did Apollo, we dedicated 5% of the federal budget to make Apollo go and be safe in a very short time. Right now, NASA's budget isn't 5% of the federal budget, it's less than a half of 1% of federal budget ... and so you just can't afford everything NASA wants to do."
NASA - PHOTO: The Orion spacecraft is seen in space, April 3, 2026.How the U.S. first got to the moon
In May 1961, in an address to a joint session of Congress, President John F. Kennedy Jr. committed the U.S. to the goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely back on Earth before the end of the decade.
The U.S. was in a space race with the Soviet Union amid the Cold War, and the Soviet Union was making significant advancements, Amy Shira Teitel, a spaceflight historian, told ABC News.
AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: President John F. Kennedy delivers a speech before the joint Congress on May 25, 1961, in Washington D.C. where he argues for support for the nation's space program.
First was Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite, which launched Oct. 4, 1957, and then Sputnik 2 a month later, which carried Laika the dog into space – the first animal to orbit the Earth.
Then, on April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin performed the first successful crewed spaceflight when he rode the Vostok 1 rocket and capsule on a single orbit around the Earth.
Teitel said the Cold War drove America's efforts then to reach the moon, a pressure the U.S. isn't facing today.
"If it hadn't been for the Cold War, we wouldn't have [landed on the moon] because it was an insane thing to do," Teitel said. "It was a Cold War pissing contest, the coolest pissing contest of all time but it was a Cold War pissing contest. ... The Soviet Union got all the firsts. It was very clear that the Soviets were developing biological systems to keep passengers alive."
Apollo 11 accomplished Kennedy's goal, famously landing American astronauts on the moon on July 20, 1969. During the landing, Mission Control in Houston flashed Kennedy's speech announcing the commitment to the moon on its big screen, followed by the words: "TASK ACCOMPLISHED, July 1969."
NASA - PHOTO: Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during an Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the lunar surface.After the Apollo missions
Americans went on to land five more times on the moon with the last being the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, crewed by Gene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt.
Apollo 17 initially was not meant to be the last mission – there had been lunar landings scheduled through Apollo 20. But with budget cuts, the last three Apollo missions had already been cancelled two years before Apollo 17's launch, and the U.S. space program changed its priorities.
"There is a misperception that after the Apollo program, the space program wound down, but it's actually switched direction and switched focus," Teasel Muir-Harmony, curator of the Apollo collection at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, told ABC News. "And it did change from becoming the national priority to one of many national priorities under the Nixon administration."
NASA - PHOTO: This classic photograph of the Earth was taken on Dec. 7, 1972, by the crew of the final Apollo 17 mission, as they traveled toward the moon on their lunar landing mission.
"It was decided that it was going to be important for the country to pursue space exploration in a more economically modest way," she added.
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President Richard Nixon directed NASA to focus less on deep space exploration and more on low-Earth orbit missions. Among these was Skylab, America's first orbiting space station, which launched on May 14, 1973.
NASA - PHOTO: An overhead view of the Skylab space station cluster in Earth orbit, Feb. 8, 1974.
During this period, NASA also developed and ran the Space Shuttle program – officially known as the STS, or Space Transportation System – the world's first reusable spacecraft, to transport crew and cargo for low Earth orbit missions. First envisioned in 1968, the shuttle program was authorized in 1972 and the first crewed launch into space took place April 12, 1981, when Columbia carried an inaugural crew of two into orbit aboard STS 1. There were 135 crewed shuttle missions in all, the last on July 8, 2011, when the program was retired.
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush announced the Space Exploration Initiative with the goals of going back to the moon "to stay" and, eventually, missions to Mars, Muir-Harmony said. The initiative was ended by Bush's successor, President Bill Clinton, due to costs and in favor of less expensive missions.
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The Clinton administration focused on converting plans for a modular space station called Freedom into the International Space Station., The largest human-made object to ever orbit the Earth, the ISS was constructed with the assistance of the Canadian, European and Japanese space agencies and 14 other countries. It launched on Nov. 20, 1998, and is still in use.
In 2004, President George W. Bush revisited his father's space aspirations by presenting the Vision for Space Exploration Program, which included among its goals returning to the moon by 2020 and eventually sending a crewed mission to Mars.
NASA's Constellation Program was created in response to the goals laid out in the Vision for Space Exploration. However, after a 2009 report found the program was so behind schedule and over budget that its goals were likely not feasible, it was canceled by Bush's successor, President Barack Obama, in 2010.
Obama's space policy shifted away from plans to return to the moon and instead proposed more funding for NASA and the development of a program that could eventually lead to crewed missions to Mars and other destinations.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images - PHOTO: President George W. Bush announces plans for man to return to the moon and eventual manned mission to Mars at NASA Head Quarters January 14, 2004 in Washington, DC.
"It's taken so long to go back to the moon because look at all of these large-scale programs behind schedule and over budget, like a theme here," Teitel said. "So, we're seeing all of these big programs, 'Oh, it's too expensive. It's over budget. It's behind schedule. We can't spend this kind of money.'"
Despite the Constellation Program being canceled, its legacy survives with the Orion spacecraft. Initially designed for the Constellation Program for use in low Earth orbit, it became the crew module used for the Artemis missions.
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Dorit Donoviel, executive director of the Translational Research Institute for Space Health at Baylor College of Medicine, told ABC News that having several administrations with consistent priorities and requests of NASA is another factor that helped get the U.S. back to the moon.
In December 2017, the first Trump administration signed a directive refocusing the space program on sending American astronauts back to the moon, followed by missions to Mars and potentially even farther. In May 2019, NASA named the program Artemis – in Greek mythology, the twin sister of Apollo and the goddess of the moon.
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This priority continued under the Biden administration. In November 2022, Artemis I successfully completed a 25-day uncrewed flight that came within just 60 miles of the moon.
Artemis I, which tested the integrated Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, set the stage for Artemis II, which is the first crewed flight of Orion.
NASA - PHOTO: The Artemis II crew, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman pause for a group photo with their zero gravity indicator "Rise," inside the Orion spacecraft April 7, 2026 following a trip around the far side of the Moon.
"I have to give [Trump] credit," Donoviel said. "He had the vision to get us back there. And obviously, he's been out of office in between, but he's come back to that vision. He could have changed his mind. He could have said, 'No, I don't want to go to the moon. I want to go to Mars or I want to look at an asteroid again, or I want to really focus on just low Earth orbit.' He could have done all those things, but he stuck with his original plan."Muir-Harmony agreed that when multiple administrations from different political parties support lunar exploration, it's easier for a project to get off the ground. She cited as examples the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations supporting Apollo and the Trump and Biden administrations supporting Artemis.
"That same political support, especially at the presidential level, is pretty critical," she said. "It's important to emphasize that there were other presidential proposals to send humans to the moon before Artemis ... [but] one of the really important factors that you see that's similar about Apollo and about Artemis is that they have maintained sustained political support through multiple presidential administrations."
Source: “AOL Breaking”
