Originally Posted by
wiggy
I'm reminded of something usually attributed to Robert Gilruth, one of the driving forces behind the Apollo programme:
"People will only realise how hard it was to do this the first time when they try to do it the second time."
Great quote wiggy - I'll have to remember that.
Yes, there has been considerable inflation since Apollo, but compare the $4+ billion per launch cost to the full-up Saturn V/Apollo per launch costs of ~$250 million (and that included the LEM - so the ability to actually land on the moon - something that's not included in that massive Artemis per launch cost).
NASA has lost its way. Once a rare government agency that could actually get things done, it's gradually morphed into just another bloated government bureaucracy, more of a hindrance to advancements in spaceflight than advancing it.
At the beginning of 1961, NASA hadn't even launched a human off of this planet. In mid 1969, NASA landed on the moon - eight plus years later.
In July, 2011, NASA launched the last space shuttle into orbit. Eleven years later, NASA
still hasn't regained the ability to launch humans into low earth orbit - never mind land on another celestial body.