Why Did NASA Stop Going to the Moon?
In July 1969, Neil Armstrong famously took “one small step for man, and one giant leap
for mankind”, becoming an American hero and a cultural icon. Apollo 11 was by all
accounts a success, enabling humans to finally visit our closest celestial neighbour. But
while the heady highs of 1969 gave us our first steps on the lunar surface, just three
years later, in 1972… we’d made our last.
This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; why did NASA stop
going to the moon?
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But, let’s rewind; why did NASA even go to the moon in the first place? Sure, it was
an extraordinary achievement, but what exactly made people so desperate to get there in the
‘60s, since we’ve seemingly forgotten all about it today? One major motivator was
the Cold War. Across the ‘50s and ‘60s especially, the Cold War was fought between
the US and the USSR via technological one-upmanship in the Arms Race and the Space Race. Nuclear
weapons were getting more and more powerful, though the lack of any actual conflict thankfully
meant that none of them were being used… so both sides decided to use their rockets
for something else: spaceflight.
And, the Soviets took a sizeable early lead in the Space Race. In 1957 they launched the
first-ever satellite into orbit, Sputnik, and later in the same year they sent the first
animal into orbit, Laika the dog in Sputnik 2. The Soviet probe Luna 2 became the first
ever craft to even reach the moon in 1959… then in 1961, the USSR sent the first man
into space, Yuri Gagarin, and two years after that the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova.
By contrast, America didn’t send a woman into space until Sally Ride in 1983! And,
back when the first two Sputniks were launched, the US didn’t even have a space program
at all; NASA wasn’t formed until 1958, as a direct result of the Cold War.
So, after the Soviets quickly accomplished a heap of major milestones for space exploration,
it was then down to the USA to do something really impressive. They didn’t settle on
the moon landing right away, though; briefly proposing an alternative plan called Project
A119, which was an alleged US Air Force scheme to detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon. Luckily,
when NASA was formed, the powers that be decided to send people to the moon instead of weapons,
after wisely guessing that the public probably wouldn’t appreciate a nuke in the sky. And
so, the race was on, and the US were in catch-up mode, as the United States government pumped
as much money as possible into the Apollo program.
In 1966, NASA received its biggest-ever share of the US federal budget, 4.5%. This was $5.9
billion back then, but around $43 billion today. For perspective, NASA’s 2019 kitty
equals just less than 0.5% of the federal budget, at $21 billion… So, they’re now
given less than half the money they once had. In reality, the Apollo space program was ludicrously
expensive, and critics of the moon landing labelled it as just one, big publicity stunt
designed to triumph over the Soviet Union. Of course, it was also an incredible achievement
for science and humanity, launching an interest in space travel that remains today… but
as soon as Apollo 11 actually won the Space Race the government started looking for any
excuse to shelve it and save some money.
Overall, the Apollo space program, that ended with Apollo 17 in 1972, cost around $150 billion
in today’s money. And, while the Space Race effectively ended in 1969, the Cold War didn’t,
and the attentions of the government turned elsewhere. But NASA itself, created expressly
to put a man on the moon, never totally lost interest in one day returning to our closest
neighbour, it only lost the state funding to do so.
Nevertheless, with NASA seemingly slowing down their efforts, more and more other space
agencies turned their eye to the moon, instead. Up until 1990, all prospective lunar missions
were dominated by the Americans and the Soviets, but then came the launch of the Hiten from
ISAS, Japan’s former space program. After that, the number of moon missions planned
by other countries grew and grew. The current Japanese space program, JAXA, have continued
to study the moon; As has the European Space Agency; And also ISRO in India.
So, on an international scale, just because we’re no longer sending people moon-wards
doesn’t mean we’re not still studying it. Probes and rovers are simply a much more
cost-effective and comparatively risk-free option compared to humans… They don’t
need food, water or oxygen, and there’s zero danger of illness, injury or death. One
of the most significant current lunar leaders is the Chang’e 4 spacecraft - sent by the
CNSA, China’s official space program. The Chang’e 4 is our first craft to land on
the fabled “dark side of the moon”. For some, the move marks the start of a New Space
Race, or New Moon Race, between China and America - only this time the US isn’t playing
catch-up. For others, though, there’s no longer a “competition” at all, and space
travel has become a much more collaborative process.
Because, while the likes of China push the boundaries of what was previously possible,
NASA hasn’t simply been twiddling its thumbs since 1972. In fact, the agency reportedly
does have plans to put people back on the moon by the late 2020s… And they did already
launch a revitalised moon initiative, the Constellation Program, in 2005 - although
this was subsequently cancelled in 2011, again to cut government spending.
What else has happened since the curtain came down on the Apollo missions? Well, the international
Space Station for one. A project again more focussed on turning space exploration into
a united effort, it’s jointly-operated by five different space agencies from around
the world. Advocates for the ISS say it holds significantly more promise than another moon
landing ever could, given that it serves as an excellent resource to study the effects
of actually living and working in outer space… Meanwhile, the moon is still a bleak and desolate
prospect by comparison, meaning once again that NASA’s funds are more likely to be
spent elsewhere.
But of course, it isn’t only the ISS that NASA and the government prefers to spend its
money on. There’s also that other, new and exciting prospect that so many have their
sights geared towards; Mars! The Mars Race is still bubbling away, albeit it at a much
slower rate than the original Space Race did (perhaps because there isn’t a war to fuel
it). And NASA certainly has aims to go to Mars, having already sent various probes and
rovers to the Red Planet. Earth’s other state-funded agencies also seem bound for
Mars, but what makes this race different to any other is the power, influence and potential
victory of private companies. Nowadays, NASA also contends with (or works with) the likes
of Boeing, Virgin and SpaceX, and the global focus has decidedly shifted away from the
moon - which now, by comparison, doesn’t even seem so far away. Today, there are other,
even more distant dreams to be had, demanding even greater amounts of time, expertise and
money.
Finally, and despite all the indications that NASA has gone cold on the moon for other reasons,
there are some more outlandish theories out there. There’s the well-pedalled conspiracy
theory that the moon landings never happened in the first place, and NASA just can’t
be bothered to fake elaborate lunar missions anymore; There’s the idea that humans haven’t
gone back to the moon for almost 50 years for fear of aliens that supposedly reside
there; And there’s the notion that the dark side of the moon actually houses a fleet of
deadly extra-terrestrial spaceships, or that the moon itself is but a hollow spaceship
primed to launch. They’re all real theories, but not exactly real science. And the likeliest
truth simply isn’t quite so exciting…
Sending humans to the moon is an expensive business, and NASA doesn’t have the financial
firepower it once did. Throw into the mix an increasing demand to send explorers to
another planet entirely, and it becomes an even greater task for the Agency to balance
the books. While renewed plans to send people and probes to explore the lunar surface prove
that interest in the moon hasn’t gone away – unfortunately, the money has. And that’s
why NASA stopped going to the moon.
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