![]() Since 2005, NASA has spent by some estimates approximately $16 billion developing the re-purposed Orion crew capsule that will carry astronauts to and from the moon in the Artemis program and nearly $20 billion, according to at least one estimate, developing the huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket needed to launch the lunar landing missions.īoth programs underwent extensive modifications, driving up costs, as program goals changed between the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations.Īs it now stands, an initial unpiloted SLS test flight is planned for late next year or, more likely, 2021 with the first piloted flight of an Orion capsule expected in the 2022-23 timeframe. Of that total, $6.4 billion is directed to exploration, a 27% increase over 2019 levels. NASA's 2020 budget request, including $1.6 billion in supplemental funding to kick-start the Artemis moon program, comes to $22.6 billion. At right: An artist's impression of a Space Launch System rocket being prepared for a future launch to the moon. may be the overriding constraint on doing anything like Apollo." At left: The Saturn 5 rocket that boosted the Apollo 11 mission to the moon is hauled from NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad in 1969. "So the kind of trillion dollars a month deficit spending we're doing wasn't there at all. ![]() "The one thing that people forget about Apollo is that the federal budget was in surplus and economists were calling for government spending to stimulate the economy in 1961," Logsdon said. Today's political and economic realities are vastly different than the ones Kennedy faced. ![]() ![]() But if it wasn't, I think he would have moved ahead." A different calculation today "If cooperation (with the Soviet Union) was possible, he would have sought cooperation. Had the president not been shot, "my judgment is that, indeed, he would not have turned off the clock and that he would have continued to support the program," Logsdon said. were to allocate resources to a space project to the same extent as it did for the lunar effort, how much would NASA have to spend today?' Think of this as a statement of economic priority." "This approach answers the question: 'If the U.S. "In other words, if Apollo occupied 2 percent of GDP in 1965, what is the equivalent of 2 percent of GDP in 2019? "The second method is to adjust the costs so that they occupy the same relative share of the nation's economy, or Gross Domestic Product (GDP), over time," Dreier wrote. To adjust the results for inflation, he used NASA's New Start Index, designed specifically for aerospace projects, which is believed to provide more accurate insights compared to the Consumer Price Index, which focuses on household and consumer goods. In reconstructing the cost of Apollo, Dreier evaluated official NASA budget submissions to Congress between 19, actual spending as reported by the space agency and countless supporting documents. "How much money did it take to do it the first time? How was it spent? And, perhaps most importantly, when did the money show up?" Moon program spending in inflation-adjusted dollars. "To properly evaluate the seriousness of this directive, it makes sense to compare its spending proposals to the one data point we have for a successful human lunar mission. "How much was spent on Apollo, and when, is relevant as NASA has once again been directed to return humans to the moon," he writes on the Planetary Society website. Given the Trump administration's directive to send astronauts back to the moon by the end of 2024 in the newly named Artemis program, budget estimates for the Apollo program and the money actually spent provide valuable insights into hurdles the new moon program will face on Capitol Hill.
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