In fact: When the Apollo program ended, the factories that assembled those vehicles were retasked or shut down. The jigs were disassembled. The molds were destroyed. The technicians, engineers, scientists, and flight controllers moved onto other jobs. Over time, some of the materials used became obsolete.
Forbes
“We would have to substitute modern materials. That changes the vehicle. It changes the mass, it changes the stresses and strains, it changes the interactions. It changes the possible malfunctions. It changes the capabilities of the vehicle.”
CBC
“The NASA workforce is one-tenth of what it used to be and funds are limited. The last 45 years have been spent building space shuttles and the International Space Station, which is why we don’t have the technology to take people back to the moon.”
50 years ago, we flew to the moon. Here’s why we can’t do that today →
CNN
“We’re learning to do things that we haven’t done in a long time, and what you’re seeing is organizations learning how to fly again,” Pace said. “Going to the moon is not a matter of just a brave or brilliant astronaut. It’s a matter of entire organizations that are organized, trained, and equipped to go out there. What we’re doing now is essentially rebuilding some of the expertise that we had during Apollo but lost over the last 50 years.”
Government Technology
“The biggest hurdle may have been the 21st-century engineers and companies with little or no moonshot experience. It has been more than 50 years since people have designed and sent landers to the moon, so firms were starting from almost scratch and working with novel technologies.”
flerf.org 