That really is the heart of it. All the skills to make it still exist, in the same way that some artisans still practice making swords by hand. All the skills needed to remake the Saturn V still exist; the knowledge hasn’t been lost. Those techniques just are rare enough that they are specialized and very expensive. The Saturn V was built with the most accessible techniques available in its time, and it still cost a fortune. But now? It’s cheaper to just design a whole new rocket from scratch, designed and optimized for today’s techniques.
The economy of scale sure can be a bitch and a half sometimes.
That really is the heart of it. All the skills to make it still exist, in the same way that some artisans still practice making swords by hand. All the skills needed to remake the Saturn V still exist; the knowledge hasn’t been lost. Those techniques just are rare enough that they are specialized and very expensive. The Saturn V was built with the most accessible techniques available in its time, and it still cost a fortune. But now? It’s cheaper to just design a whole new rocket from scratch, designed and optimized for today’s techniques.