Elon Musk: "This Is Why NASA Stopped Moon Missions!"

 

For four decades, the Moon was the crown jewel of human space exploration. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, NASA's Apollo missions were the embodiment of innovation, ambition, and geopolitical rivalry. But following Apollo 17's last lunar landing in 1972, NASA quietly left the Moon behind. No humans have gone back since.

Why?

As told by Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX and perhaps the most powerful voice in space exploration today, the answer isn't as complicated as it appears — and it's not some secret conspiracy.

"It Wasn't Sustainable," Musk Says

In an interview, Musk explained it simply: "People think NASA just gave up. That's not true. The Apollo missions were about beating the Soviets. Once that was done, the budget dried up. There was no long-term plan, no economic model, no way to justify it politically."

The Apollo mission was never intended as a long-term plan for lunar occupation. It was a high-speed, splashy competition to demonstrate technological superiority in the Cold War. But after America "won," interest declined, political will receded, and the price tag — an astronomical 4.5% of the U.S. federal budget at its height — grew hard to justify.

The Cost of Going to the Moon

To set that in context: every Apollo mission cost billions of dollars in today's currency. The technology, though state-of-the-art for the time, was costly, delicate, and needed huge logistical support.

"There was no reusable infrastructure," Musk said. "They built it, they flew it, and then they threw it away."

And with no concrete plan to construct habitable habitats, extract resources, or sustain a long-term base on the moon, the missions became milestones in history rather than stepping stones.

NASA's Shift in Priorities

By the late '70s and '80s, NASA refocused on low-Earth orbit. The Space Shuttle program appeared as a more practical and politically acceptable option. It provided the capability for many missions, scientific experiments, and satellite deployment — all without the staggering cost of moon landings.

Musk argues that this shift, while understandable, led to a kind of stagnation. “We went from dreaming about other worlds to just circling our own,” he said. “It was like winning the World Series and then deciding to stop playing baseball.”

Enter SpaceX: Reigniting the Dream

Elon Musk started SpaceX in 2002 with a definitive mission: reduce the cost of space travel and colonize Mars in the long term. Yet, the Moon is still an essential component of that plan.

We must return to the Moon, but this time to stay," Musk stated. SpaceX's Starship — a spacecraft that is under development and designed to be reused in its entirety — is the key to making this happen. NASA has already collaborated with SpaceX to utilize a variant of Starship for NASA's Artemis program, which will send the next astronauts to the Moon as early as the late 2020s.

The New Space Age

Unlike Apollo, Artemis is not about flash. It's about creating a gateway in lunar orbit, creating a sustained presence, and laying the groundwork for human missions to Mars.

For Musk, the moral of NASA's history is straightforward: "We didn't stop going to the Moon because we couldn't. We stopped because we didn't think ahead. This time, we have to do it right."

And with the private sector pushing boundaries alongside traditional space agencies, the dream of returning to — and staying on — the Moon may finally become reality.