content: When we went to the moon we found out that there wasn't anything there of value. The real value of space research is the lack of gravity and proximity to earth. All those goals can be accomplished in LEO. So, when we decided we were going to stick to LEO, we built a rocket and shuttle that were designed for LEO missions. So, yeah, the technology for anything further than LEO missions were lost when the Saturn rocket was decommissioned, you need something at least as powerful as a Saturn rocket for that. We don't have anything as powerful as a Saturn rocket.