Not as simple as that,
They went from the one use rockets to the reusable shuttle.
The shuttle is not capable of going to the moon. So the focus changed to earth orbit missions like hubble, ISS, comunications satellites, GPS etc etc.
Next moon missions are going to be in about 10 years and they'll be using two one use only rockets. One for crew one for equipment. They'll meet in earth orbit and then head out to the moon attached together.
There is a possible reason to go to the moon in that there's a lot of H3 there which could be invaluble to large scale fusion power generation.
(PsychoChomp, Mon 20 Jul 2009, 11:08, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

I think it's He3
As opposed to H3.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 20 Jul 2009, 11:10, Reply)

nah, it's tritium which is a hydrogen atom with 2 neutrons attached.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium#Controlled_nuclear_fusion
(PsychoChomp, Mon 20 Jul 2009, 11:12, Reply)

Actually you're right,
both are used in fusion reasearch but He3 is the one they need to get from the moon.
(PsychoChomp, Mon 20 Jul 2009, 11:14, Reply)

Yes, but
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3

Look at the 'Extraterrestrial Sources' section down the page a bit.

Edit - posted at the same time as the above
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 20 Jul 2009, 11:15, Reply)

Already did ^^^

(PsychoChomp, Mon 20 Jul 2009, 11:15, Reply)