Artemis II’s long countdown – a space historian explains why it has taken over 50 years to return to the Moon

by dem676

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  1. In 1969, just weeks after Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, NASA presented a plan to President Nixon for the Space Post-Apollo Program. If it had been approved, the timeline would have looked radically different.

    • 1974: A permanent space station in Earth orbit (which eventually became Skylab, but much smaller).

    • 1978: A permanent Lunar Base on the surface of the Moon.

    • 1981: A crewed mission to Mars.

    We know this never happened because of budget cuts and politics.