Every year NASA spends an average of about $18 billion on its various activities. What has that purchased? How much of that comes out of the pockets of the U.S. taxpayer? The facts are surprising and the lack of gratitude and ignorance spread about NASA’s budget – is disappointing. This is made worse by the argument raised since the very beginning of the Space Age that we need to focus on Earthly concerns first. Anyone, with even the most basic understandings of human history knows that this argument is based off of emotion – and will only serve to injure humanity’s chances for long-term survival.
The International Space Station (ISS), to date has cost $150 billion, $50 billion of that was paid by American taxpayers since 1994. The total cost of the Space Shuttle Program: $200 billion, that includes the cost of the refurbishment of Launch Complexes A and B, astronaut training the facilities, expendables and infrastructure to operate the program. Each mission cost an estimated $450 million. Humanity’s greatest journey to date – cost less than the shuttle program.
Apollo, the effort that saw six missions send crew to walk on another world – cost $23.9 billion. This relatively low cost, considering what was accomplished has caused some historians to call Apollo a “gift” to the U.S. taxpayer. In fact, some of the most wasteful space-related expenses - have been caused by the actions of politicians – not the agency itself.
NASA had already invested an estimated $9 billion (there appears to be some evidence that this might have gone as high as $14 billion in order for NASA to cover the cost of cancelling contracts) on the Constellation Program, even going so far as to renovate Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B and conducting a single test flight of the Ares-1-X booster – before President Barack Obama attempted to cancel virtually all aspects of NASA’s crewed deep space exploration efforts. Thankfully, elements of the program were salvaged and NASA is still working to send crews to destinations such as an asteroid and Mars.
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http://interstellar-news.blogspot.com/2014/11/earth-first-emotional-argument-lacking.html
