Artemis II: Why our return to the moon took so long

The story of NASA’s effort to return humans to the moon is long and winding.

[Photo: NASA/John Kraus]

While I was leading a tour of the National Air and Space Museum in January 2026, a visitor posed this insightful question: “Why has it taken so long to return to the moon?”

After all, NASA had the know-how and technology to send humans to the lunar surface more than 50 years ago as part of the Apollo program. And, as another tour guest........

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