The Real Reason We Haven't Been Back To The Moon

On July 20, 1969, one of the most momentous events in human history occurred: people walked on the Moon. Eventually the United States completed six Moon landings… and then we suddenly stopped. This is the real reason we haven't been back to the moon.

One of the key drivers of the USA's quest to land humans on the Moon was a sense of competition with the Soviet Union. The Soviet government poured money and expertise into their space program in the 1950s, and achieved several amazing firsts in the process. Sputnik was the first artificial satellite orbiting Earth in 1957, and in 1961 Soviet pilot Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to orbit the Earth. By the early 1960s, it seemed obvious that the Soviets were going to be the first nation to land someone on the Moon.

The Cold War was in high gear, and the potential technological and strategic advantages such a feat would give the Russians was a concern. As noted by former NASA Chief Historian Roger Launius, the Space Race was really a proxy war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Instead of deploying tanks and troops on Earth, the two countries deployed scientists and engineers in an effort to claim the Moon as their own—if only symbolically. Those Cold War conditions no longer exist, and so far, no countries have risen to the same rivalry that the USA and the Soviet Union had, removing a key reason we went to the Moon in the first place.

#Moon #NASA

The Cold War ended | 0:00
It's too politically risky | 1:26
A PR stunt | 2:36
No plans for repetition | 3:58
Safety concerns | 5:23
We need better technology | 6:33
Presidents aren't patient | 7:17
Challenger and Columbia | 8:20
The focus is on Mars | 9:19
The pandemic | 10:30

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