The Apollo Project

[Jonfliesgoats]

Very few major airlines do all of their C or D checks in the US.  Even the biggest names are shipping at least some of their planes overseas for major inspections.  

[todofwar]

What about the service module? People sometimes talk about the benefits of leaving a spacecraft in orbit to reduce costs, but it seems to me since you'll want a refurbished engine and need to launch up more fuel for it, you don't actually gain much by leaving some piece of it in orbit. But maybe you could have the living space and some other components remain in orbit? It would only really save costs in that it takes some weight off the top of the stack of course. Then again, that would require enough fuel to actually insert into an earth orbit.

[hugix]

To be fair, the Americans did re use a Gemini capsule. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_2

 

Another reason not to re use the capsule (or parts of it) was the fact that the Apollo program had a definitive end. The program only lasted for 20 missions, and not all of them landed. Why all the effort of refurbishing stuff when you only need maximum 20 of a component.