Back to the Moon for Real: A Conversation with Private-Spaceflight Evangelist Charles Miller

The future that never happened: A bustling Mon base as envisioned by a NASA study in 1986. (Credit: NASA/Dennis M. Davidson) NASA's human spaceflight program has been in a state of uncertainty pretty much from the moment the Apollo 17 crew left the surface of the Moon 45 years ago this month. The Space Shuttle never became the hoped-for workhorse that would makes space access cheap and routine; the International Space Station never became a glorious gateway to deep-space exploration. Now NASA faces yet another U-turn as President Trump has directed the agency's administrator to send astronauts back to the moon. One problem: There is no NASA administrator (the Senate hasn't voted on the nominee, Rep. Jim Bridenstine, so he'll have to be renominated when congress reconvenes next month). Another problem: There is no budget to support another Apollo-style venture. So where do we go from here? I spoke with ...