It has been more than 50 years since a human last walked on the Moon. Even though technology has improved massively, no astronaut has returned since 1972.
The last person to step on the Moon was Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17. The mission, run by NASA, marked the final Moon landing of the Apollo program.
Many people assume astronauts never returned because technology was not advanced enough. But former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said that is not the real reason.
Speaking in 2018, Bridenstine explained that politics played the biggest role. According to him, political risk and government decisions stopped the missions from continuing.
He said that if politics had not interfered, humans might already be living on the Moon or even traveling to Mars. Instead, many programs slowed down because they became too expensive and took too long to complete.
Now, space agencies are trying again. The recent Artemis II mission has sent astronauts around the Moon as part of a new effort to return humans to its surface.
The crew — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen — launched aboard the Orion spacecraft and will spend about 10 days in space testing technology for future missions.
If everything goes as planned, the next step will be Artemis III, which aims to land humans on the Moon again. If successful, it could finally end the 50-year gap since the last footsteps were left on the lunar surface.
