Free Astronomy Magazine July-August 2019

JULY-AUGUST 2019 canceled for various reasons, in- cluding budget cuts needed to fund the Skylab program and, less usefully, the war in Vietnam. The Apollo 20 mission was can- celed immediately after the success of Apollo 12, while Apollo 18 and that type of space activity that de- creed its premature conclusion. When NASA decided to abandon Apollo 20, the mission hardware was only partially built. On the contrary, the hardware for Apollo 18 and 19 was ready and these two 19 were canceled after the misad- venture of Apollo 13, still at the apex of public interest in the con- quest of the Moon. This invalidates a fairly widespread thesis, accord- ing to which it was the growing disinterest of US taxpayers towards