Analysis of lunar regolith brought back by Apollo missions shows it contains lots of oxygen.

ECONOMIST: Spaceflight

The space shuttle program cost more and was less safe than the Apollo missions that preceded it.

FORBES: What Bygone Absurdities Can Tell Us About Our Future

Since the end of the Apollo missions, the manned programme has drifted without any purpose to guide it.

ECONOMIST: The recent past

It occurred between two Apollo missions, with one crew just returned from the Moon and another preparing for launch.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Spacecraft go to film Sun in 3D

Gerry Griffin was a Flight Director for the Apollo Missions and is a former Director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

FORBES: Golden Spike Aims To Take The World To The Moon - For $750M Per Ticket

Astronauts will ride in a capsule at the top of the rocket, as they did in the famous Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions.

FORBES: NASA Aims For Moon, Mars and Asteroids

Particles whipped up by landing rockets on the moon's surface could damage what was left behind by the Apollo missions, ruining its scientific and historic value.

ENGADGET: NASA accidentally improves weather forecasting with lunar dust-measuring lasers

But Ouyang says much has changed since America's Apollo missions.

NPR: China Aims High For Its Space Program

The award would be presented to each crewmember from all 12 three-man Apollo missions, including the Apollo 7 and 9 Earth-orbit flights as well as the Apollo 1 crew, which perished in a launch pad fire in 1967.

CNN: House approves moon rock giveaway to Apollo survivors

"This is going to be the largest sample of an extraterrestrial object returned to Earth since end of the Apollo missions over 40 years ago, " said Edward Beshore, deputy principal investigator for the mission, who is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

CNN: So, about that asteroid near Earth ...

Clinton envisioned a national effort toward a new energy policy similar in scale to the Apollo program of the 1960s, which sent manned missions to the moon.

CNN: Trade, economic issues dominate last Dem debate before Iowa

And while you didn't exactly have to be a rocket scientist to join the original space missions (the U.S. Mercury and Apollo programs recruited many test pilots), if you want to stand a chance against other heavily-qualified applicants, it's certainly an advantage.

CNN: Middle aged spacemen needed for moonshot

During the Apollo phase, the United States advanced very quickly, launching many missions which culminated in reaching the moon by a decade's end.

CNN: Will China overtake America in space?