> [...]rockets like the Saturn V, which was amazing but too big and expensive to be used for much besides Apollo[...] The cost per launch for the Saturn V was

> [...]rockets like the Saturn V, which was amazing but too big and expensive to be used for much besides Apollo[...] The cost per launch for the Saturn V was around a $1 billion in today's money. That's lower than some estimates for the per-launch cost for the Shuttle. It wasn't unsuitable, the US could have continued with it just like the Russians continued with the Soyuz. > But at the end of the day you’re much better off with a rocket that’s ok for a bunch of stuff than one that’s really good at one thing. Perfecting the rocket is opportunity cost eating up missions you could be flying today if you just mass produced your existing but flawed rocket. The US could have had something like a hundred moon missions many the ISS's mass many times over in orbit by the start of the 90s if they just continued improving on the Apollo architecture.