At the ongoing 2025 World Manufacturing Convention in Hefei in east China's Anhui Province, a Chinese space-tech lab has unveiled a lunar brick maker that turns moon dust into bricks.As the world's first proof-of-concept machine of this kind, it is designed
Yes, but they threw away the entire rocket each time. That’s why we haven’t been back since 1972. If orbital refueling with a fully reusble launch vehicle can be unlocked, that will be a game changer for space exploration. China would win the sprint but lose the marathon.
Also the fact space rendezvous havent even been achieved when the Apollo program begun. It wasnt until Gemini missions that proved it can be done. Until then, even the lander was being designed to ascent from the lunar surface and go home without any rendezvous maneuver. But that was scrapped for the more economical lunar module and command module design.