I suspect it's the optics of it. If you can fly people around the moon, then landing people on the moon is a more reasonable next step. I agree that it may no

I suspect it's the optics of it. If you can fly people around the moon, then landing people on the moon is a more reasonable next step. I agree that it may not be entirely logical, but keeping public and funding opinion positive & invested _is_ important. edit: I thought RocketLab flew their elecron rocket around the moon a few years ago? So it's definitely doable... so again I think it's about the optics.