Why is there no launch site on the moon?

We stopped because of expense of the program, and the political will of the US started questioning why we kept going when we had already beat the Russians to the moon. Had we kept going - increasing our presence, first with larger landers and longer stays, then finally with a lunar habitat - by now we would've have much more spaceflight experience, and probably a dozen other benefits - perhaps including a launch facility for heavy-lift vehicles....

It might make sense to launch stuff from the Moon if you make that stuff on the Moon. That's because the Moon has lower gravity than Earth. But have you ever tried to set your watch while wearing oven mitts? Astronauts wear a suit in space or on the Moon. Doing even simple things is really difficult compared to doing them on Earth. And lots of processes we know how to do on Earth are things that don't work in a vacuum. So for now, it's easier to launch things from the Earth.

All of the Apollo landers were their own lunar launch site.

Unfortunately for your plan, everything that might be launched from the moon has to be lifted from the earth first, then slowed and landed on the moon - taking lots of fuel. Once you get it into space there is no point to taking it to the moon (except as part of colonization there)

At one point there were plans to launch large craft in pieces and assemble them in orbit around the earth and then launch from there, but the reduction in size of equipment (computers with 64GB in your pocket phone) has meant that the risks of working in space this way are avoided.

The International Space Station has a launch site, it is much closer than travelling to the moon. We don't send people to the moon any more because it is very expensive and we have no reason to go there, they have explored it enough for now.

It was very expensive just sending two people at a time to the moon (with a third person in lunar orbit). In the 1980s NASA spent most of its money on the space shuttle program, which could only reach low earth orbit.

In order to build a launch site on the Moon you have to first launch all the building materials from Earth... and then build it. Then you have to maintain it by sending up regular supplies and repair teams.

If you launch directly from Earth you don't have to launch the building materials or build and maintain the site. You do the maths.

With the robotics available now, there is no reason to send people into space. Robots don't need to eat or breathe and are thus a lot easier to send. They are also getting technically advanced enough that they can do almost the same as humans can at a tiny fraction of the cost.

Thank You john doe 1234.. that is the exact question I have been trying to get an answer for many years now.. and it gives me serious doubt that we actually went there with the old technology back then,, but we won't go 'back' there now and push our envelope of knowledge to extreme limits.

Great question , Sir!

America chickened out - it dumbed down - it became more "conservative", terrified - it pulled in it's head and refused to think of the future. With America's new cheap religiosity comes a disregard for science. America is now waiting for Jesus to come back - it no longer cares about reality and the universe. The world turned flat again.

maybe they didnt .. doubt we know half of whats going on ...