Comment by nickff
10 months ago
SLS has been around the moon and back; that mission was equivalent to an unmanned Apollo VIII. Going around the moon is much easier than landing on it and coming back.
10 months ago
SLS has been around the moon and back; that mission was equivalent to an unmanned Apollo VIII. Going around the moon is much easier than landing on it and coming back.
Sure. And not-quite-getting-into-orbit is easier -- significantly easier -- than going around the moon.
What's your point, really, aside from nitpicking, when "orbiting the moon" is a perfectly reasonable interpretation of the statement "been to the moon and back"?
I think the difference between the US lunar exploration program and the Soviet one qualifies as more than mere nitpicking.