The American Moon

In 1972 the moon was American. 

Today an American has to buy a ticket from the Russians to go into space.

Anyone know what happened?

The last man to walk on the moon in 1972

A few days back Captain Eugene Cernan USN (Ret)  passed away. He was the last man to walk on the moon, that was Apollo 17 back in 1972.
In those days the moon was American.
In 1961 JFK gave his speech that established having an American walk on the moon was a national priority. In 1969 we did walk on the moon ... in 1972 we went home.

From the public announcement that we would do it to when we got bored of it was just 11 years. Today when an American goes into space he buys a ticket from a Russian...

I am saddened by this, something great has been lost by my country.


Is it the money? Is it the time involved? Is the risk to American lives?  No... I don't think so.

The Apollo program cost $134.3 billion in 2013 dollars, took 11 years & 3 lives were lost.

Just as a comparison let's look at Afghanistan.  2001 to today is about 15 years in Afghanistan, $685.6 billion dollars as of 2013 & and 2386 lives lost as of October 18th of last year (2016).

To keep these dollars in perspective in 2008 we gave the banking industry $700 billion dollars to cover their gambling debts. That's $757 in 2013 dollars.

So it's not the money, it's not the time & it's not the lives. Why did we give up space?

Beats me... maybe the money was just going to the wrong places?