Having grown up around Johnson Space Center and the decommissioned Saturn V on display, I think this is more of a "technically true" misnomer. It's true in the same way we don't have the technology to build a 69 Camaro anymore because we dismantled it and have no desire to, not because we have lost the technical capability.
The difference between the technology to build a 69 Camaro and a vehicle to take us to the Moon (heh, among many) is that the technology to build the Camaro has steadily evolved into the technology we use to build cars today, whereas we literally stopped making Moon transfer vehicles about 50 years ago and literally haven't made anything since that is capable of doing it again.
It's not the the technology hasn't advanced. There's been a lot of improvements in aerospace manufacturing techniques and materials since then. It's just the cost vs interest isn't there.
In the case of the US the space shuttle program was the big disaster. Keeping them operational consumed so much of NASA's budget that they couldn't afford to develop a heavy lift vehicle. That and the bloated US military industrial pork complex can't make anything on time and on budget.
> It's not the the technology hasn't advanced. There's been a lot of improvements in aerospace manufacturing techniques and materials since then. It's just the cost vs interest isn't there.
Isn't that a distinction without difference?
We have the technology to solve world hunger, it's just the cost vs interest isn't there.
We could be sending people to the moon monthly if NASA got out of the business of building launch vehicles. The first version of the SLS will be only lift slightly more than the Falcon Heavy, yet each launch of the SLS will cost over $2B while the Heavy costs $100M.
In your example the replacement technology is demonstrably better and more capable. We don’t have replacement technology for the moon lander or even the shuttle.
Though I suppose you could argue sending robots instead of people is better?
I can only guess that you're being downvoted because you want a replacement technology for the Space Shuttle. That's still a pretty divisive issue, as the some people blame the shuttle for NASA not developing new launch vehicles for 30 years, as they spent so much effort maintaining the shuttles.
I think the SpaceX approach is working better, at least for now, where you attempt reusability, but not for a long time. It's like a Harbor Frieght tool -- use it like 3 or 4 times before it's toast. But SpaceX hasn't yet had the fun of launching passengers, so it's really not a fair comparison.
