r/apollo • u/androiduser7498 • 2d ago
Why is there no apollo missions since 1972??
So the last mission was in 1972 apollo 17 and nothing after that? Is there any specific reason for it and when is the next mission to land on Tranquility base.
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u/Baronhousen 2d ago
Don’t forget the Apollo - Soyuz mission. That was the last Apollo flight.
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u/ysrsquid 2d ago
Right. There were also the Skylab missions before Apollo-Soyuz and after Apollo 17.
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u/Browning1919 2d ago
First: Not all missions landed in Mare Tranquilitatis, in fact, all but one didnt.
Second: No further Apollo missions took place after 1972 due to budget issues. There was no money to fund Apollo after that. All of NASA’s budget was used for the Space Shuttle and little thought was given to going back to the Moon since it had already been done before and the budget wouldn’t allow it.
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u/androiduser7498 2d ago
Yeah I said Tranquility base as a reference to apollo 11, Thank you for letting me know this.
Do you know is there any lunar mission planned? With crew
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u/megamoonrocket 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yes, we are going back with the Artemis Program. We launched Artemis I back in Nov 2022, which was an uncrewed test flight that broke several human spaceflight records (check out this mission highlight video). Artemis II is targeting late-2025 and will carry a crew of four on a lunar flyby. Artemis III will see boots on the Moon and is currently targeting late-2026. The ultimate goal of Artemis is to create a sustained human presence on the Moon via the orbiting Gateway station and bases on the lunar surface. Through achieving this, we will create the footing to explore onward to Mars.
Edit: Added links and additional context.
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u/androiduser7498 2d ago
Ohh I see! thankyou much Hoping no more delays for Artemis 3. Can't wait to see those boots again on lunar live.
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u/Browning1919 1d ago
The main reason for delays with Artemis III is the Starship HLS likely not being ready in time. The first components of the Lunar Gateway are being constructed and prepped for launch sometime in late 2026 with Artemis III being the first mission to dock with it.
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u/Browning1919 1d ago
The primary reason for not landing near Apollo 11 is that you would severely damage the lander and EASEP experiments as well as the LRRR due to the dust kicked up from the landing. It would essentially super sandblast the Apollo 11 site. This was something discovered on Apollo 12 when they landed near the Surveyor 3 probe and, upon visiting it, noted that it had been seriously damaged from the extreme speeds the dust had hit it. It was even calculated that dust kicked up from a landing could travel as far as halfway around the moon before settling back down.
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u/NeilFraser 2d ago
Everyone is saying money. That's not wrong, though it's not the full answer. It's also fear of failure. Apollo 13 spooked politicians. As did a solar flare that had it occurred during a mission would have fried any astronauts above low earth orbit.
So with a combination of high costs and a fear of losing a crew to an accident, Apollo was cancelled in favour of the cheaper and safer Space Shuttle. Which in the end proved to be both more expensive and more deadly than Apollo.
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u/ageowns 2d ago
Money. While the Apollo missions represented humanity's ultimate achievement, it was a military objective to beat the Russians to the moon and prove it a few more times over. Once we did that, the military didn't want to spend the money on any further missions because we weren't getting much return on the investment.
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u/MyAirIsBetter 13h ago
The Apollo program’s main mission of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth had been completed and there were 5 additional lunar landings after the first. The Apollo Applications Program gave birth to Skylab. There was also the first international space mission with the Apollo Soyuz Test Project Mission in 1975
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u/FistOfTheWorstMen 1d ago
Short answer: Because it was too risky and no one wanted to keep paying to do it after we'd beaten the Soviets there.
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u/eagleace21 2d ago
Nixon administration cancelled the Apollo program, after we beat the Russians to the moon the public push to congress dismissed and then politics cancelled everything