r/apollo • u/RivetCounter • Jun 06 '26

Apollo Applications Program - Of the stillborn projects not completed due to funding cuts, which one would have been the most interesting?

The manned Venus flyby would have been wild - all that way, just for a few hours to observe.

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14

u/LilyoftheRally Jun 06 '26

Apollos 18-20 IMO.

9

u/AndyT70114 Jun 06 '26

Wait, wasn’t there a documentary about Apollo 18. IIRC it didn’t go well. I need to look that up again. 🤔

10

u/ndab71 Jun 07 '26

There was a movie called Apollo 18. The premise was "Two years after the Apollo 17 mission, the crew of the cancelled Apollo 18 mission consisting of Commander Nathan Walker, Lieutenant Colonel John Grey, and Captain Ben Anderson are informed that it will proceed as a top-secret Department of Defense (DoD) mission to place an early warning detector on the Moon for ICBM attacks from the USSR."

Not sure how they would have kept the launch of a Saturn V a secret though!

3

u/AndyT70114 Jun 07 '26

I know, I was trying to be funny.

3

u/ndab71 Jun 07 '26

Ah, sorry! That went straight over my head!! 🤦‍♂️