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The US Mercury space program, which was designed to send a single-person spacecraft into orbit to test human's ability to function in space, had already been in space before the race to the moon became a factor in 1961. Many in the US felt that it was behind in the "space race" due to the USSR unexpectly launching Sputnik I in 1957, and the Mercury program was the result of that. When President Kennedy made the promise to put a man on the moon, the Gemini and Apollo programs were begun almost overnight. The Atlas, Saturn I and Saturn V were created as part of those programs. The Saturn V was specifically specced to be able to carry the whole launch system into orbit and then send it on its way to the moon.
Apollo was originaly going to run 20 missions total, but funding was cut so the last mission to the moon was Apollo 17. However, spacecraft were already being constructed. Three Apollo capsules were used as part of Skylab, and one was used for the Apollo-Soyuz test project.
In the middle of the 1970s, the Space Transportation System (shuttle) was designed. It first flew in 1982, if memory serves April of 1981, according to Wikipedia. The Shuttle was the product of the last of the Apollo era of NASA.
Whether the Shuttle was a good idea or not, I think it's clear that it cost far more per flight than it was ever meant to. The Shuttle is currently scheduled to cease flights in 2010, although there are proposals to extend its operational life.
However, for the first time since the mid 1970s, NASA and their contractors are in the process of bringing a new human-capable launch system on-line. The Ares launch system will be a replacement for the Shuttle and be able to carry humans into orbit. The system consists of the Ares I, which carries a small spacecraft into orbit with people on board, and the Ares-5, which is an unmanned heavy-lift vehicle which will carry larger spacecraft into orbit, perhaps to go to the moon, or Mars, or wherever.
The very first Ares-I test launch is scheduled to be later this month. The test vehicle has been assembled; late last week the flight batteries were installed and the vehicle was closed up. Tonight it's scheduled to roll out to launch pad 39-B. Launch of the test vehicle is scheduled near the end of the month.
Here are a couple of renderings of the launch of an Ares I, from the NASA web site:
The white skinny bit at the bottom, the first stage, is a solid rocket basically based on the Shuttle's Solid Rocket Boosters. The upper brown part, the second stage, is a liquid-fueled rocket that will then carry the spacecraft into orbit.
This document from NASA shows the specifics of this month's test flight. The first stage is basically a Shuttle SRB. The separation hardware is live, the second stage is "simulated", as is the spacecraft. So this is a dynamics test of the launch vehicle, with no spacecraft, but it's a big first step in the proces of comissioning a new launch vehicle and spacecraft system for the first time in 27 years.
Well, they just announced that the roll-out won't begin for another hour, and it's my bed-time, so I won't see it. I'm very much looking forward to the launch, though.
(These images were generated by NASA. They are used here according to permissions found on NASA's copyright page.)