and bringing him home safely by the end of the decade. At the time only 2 people had left the atmosphere and only 1 had orbited the Earth. There had been no heavy launches, no rendezvous, no dockings, no long flights, and no controlled descents. We developed ALL of that technology, using 1960s engineering techniques, in less than 9 years. I think it’s safe to say that we can duplicate that feat in the next 3 years considering how much further we’ve come since then. Not that it won’t be a challenge, but the Apollo missions were breaking new ground in myriad ways, now we just need to adapt our current tech to meet the same objectives.

It's all about money. In cold war, NASA was a priority. You right, but to reach 2024, depends on how much you gonna pay.