After more than a decade's worth of work and billions of dollars spent, the United States could send humans to the surface of the Moon whenever it wanted. But after landing only six times, the country just walked away, closing down production lines, laying off tens of thousands of workers, and committing humans to low-Earth orbit seemingly indefinitely. Why did it end? And was this inevitable?

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After more than a decade's worth of work and billions of dollars spent, the United States could send humans to the surface of the Moon whenever it wanted. But after landing only six times, the country just walked away, closing down production lines, laying off tens of thousands of workers, and committing humans to low-Earth orbit seemingly indefinitely. Why did it end? And was this inevitable?<p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

Explore the politics of why the United States decided to send humans to the Moon—and why the nation pulled back after landing only six times. Hosted by Casey Dreier, the Chief Advocate and Senior Space Policy Adviser at The Planetary Society, this special edition podcast features some of the world’s leading space policy experts and historians in interviews initially broadcast as part of the monthly show, Planetary Radio: Space Policy Edition. Together these interviews, along with new opening analyses, attempt to tell a fuller story about Project Apollo, beginning with the political pre-history of the space age, going into the cold war, and looking at the political opposition that ultimately ended the ability of the United States to land on the Moon.