NASA Budget

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA Insignia
established: July 29, 1958 (by the National Aeronautics and Space Act)
Administrator: Mike Griffin
budget: $16.2 billion[1]


Each year, the United States Congress passes a Federal Budget detailing where federal tax money will be spent in the coming year.

The following charts detail the amount of federal funding allotted to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) each year over its' past forty-nine year history (1958-2007) to operate aeronautics research, unmanned planetary and manned space exploration programs.

Contents

[edit] Annual budget breakdown through the years 1958-2007

NASA's annual budget (in billions of US Dollars)
Source: U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Year 1958 Dollars
(Adjusted For Inflation)		 Constant Dollars
(as of 1996)		 CPI
2001
1958 0.089 0.488 0.1828
1959 0.145 0.781 0.1862
1960 0.401 2.145 0.187
1961 0.744 3.879 0.1919
1962 1.257 6.554 0.1918
1963 2.552 12.767 0.1999
1964 4.171 20.587 0.2026
1965 5.093 24.795 0.2054
1966 5.933 26.820 0.2212
1967 5.426 24.798 0.2188
1968 4.724 20.664 0.2286
1969 4.253 17.537 0.2425
1970 3.755 14.616 0.2569
1971 3.381 12.356 0.2736
1972 3.435 11.787 0.2914
1973 3.324 10.910 0.3047
1974 3.252 9.790 0.3322
1975 3.330 9.111 0.3655
1976 3.670 9.356 0.3922
1977 3.944 9.297 0.4242
1978 3.980 8.798 0.4524
1979 4.187 8.540 0.4903
1980 4.850 8.966 0.5409
1981 5.421 9.089 0.5965
1982 6.026 9.436 0.6386
1983 6.664 9.973 0.6682
1984 7.048 10.050 0.7013
1985 7.251 9.996 0.7254
1986 7.403 9.960 0.7433
1987 7.591 9.940 0.7637
1988 9.092 11.540 0.7879
1989 11.036 13.506 0.8171
1990 12.429 14.714 0.8447
1991 13.878 15.735 0.882
1992 13.961 15.310 0.9119
1993 14.305 15.301 0.9349
1994 13.695 14.351 0.9543
1995 13.377 13.692 0.977
1996 13.882 13.882 1.00
1997 14.358 14.067 1.0207
1998 13.638 13.193 1.0337
1999 13.665 12.999 1.0512
2000 13.600 12.618 1.0779
2001 14.253 12.884 1.1062
2002 14.892 13.305 1.12 (est)
2003 15.117 13.158 1.14 (est)
2004 15.469 13.452 1.15 (est)
2005 15.696 13.201 1.16 (est)
2006 16.223 13.111 1.17 (est)
2007 16.250 13.007 1.125 (est)

As seen in the year-by-year breakdown listed above, the total amounts (in real dollars) that NASA has been budgeted from 1958 to 2007 amounts to $419.420 billion dollars -- an average of $8.559 billion per year. Measured in real terms (Meaning: if the value of $1.00 in 2007 equaled the value of $1.00 in 1958), the figure is $618.412 billion, or an average of $12.681 billion dollars per year over its' forty-nine year history.

[edit] NASA's yearly budgets chart, adjusted for Inflation (1958-2005) vs. the relative cost of project Apollo

NASA's budget peaked in 1966, during the Apollo program

As this chart shows, NASA's budget peaked in 1966, during the height of construction efforts leading up to the first moon landing program known as Project Apollo. At the time -- adjusted for inflation in today's dollars, roughly two to four cents out of every U.S. tax dollar (or 4% of the total federal budget) was being devoted to the space program.

In March of 1966, NASA told Congress the "run-out cost" of the Apollo program to put men on the moon would be an estimated $22.718 billion for the 13 year program which eventually did accomplished six successful missions between July 1969 and December 1972. According to Steve Garber, the NASA History website curator, the final cost of project Apollo was between $20 and $25 billion.

Using the Consumer Price Index, it would work out to about $136 billion in contemporary dollars -- but this would not be a very good measure since the CPI does not reflect the cost of rockets and launch pads. Using the broader based Gross Domestic Product deflator gives a present cost of $110 billion. The alternative of using the wage series would be a rough measure of the labor cost in current terms and it would be $149 billion. By using the GDP per capita, we are measuring the cost in terms of average product and would get a number of $237 billion.

Finally, a way to consider the "opportunity cost" to society, the best measure might be the cost as a percent of GDP, and that number would be $359 billion.

This amount over thirteen years would be $28 billion per year. As a comparison, the NASA budget for the current fiscal year (2007) is $16.3 billion.

Since the decline of Apollo leading into the Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, and the Space Transportation System (also more commonly known as the space shuttle), total federal expenditures has declined to less than one percent (roughly 7/10ths of 1%) of the overall budget.

[edit] NASA's budget, as it currently stands today

According to figures provided by the Coalition for Space Exploration, and other space advocacy groups such as the National Space Society and U.S. Space Foundation, when divided by the number of American citizens who pay their taxes on April 15, the amount of NASA's budget works out to approximately $55 USD per year per taxpayer -- $1.06 a week, or $0.15 cents a day in current 2007 spending.

However, a January 14, 2007 story appearing in the Houston Chronicle and other news media outlets have pointed out that Congress' failure to approve a new annual budget for NASA could force the agency to lay off workers, gut science programs or delay the development of the Orion spacecraft to return astronauts to the moon, legislators and space experts say. The crunch comes because Congress is freezing most 2007 spending at 2006 levels through Sept. 30. Therefore, NASA's budget will be held at $16.3 billion, more than $500 million short of the request made by President George W. Bush.

David Steitz, a NASA public affairs spokesman said the space agency is waiting for guidance from legislators on 2007 spending and the White House proposal for the 2008 budget. "It's like planning your family's budget," he said. "Until you have the paycheck in the bank, you can't figure out what bills you're going to pay."

On February 1, marking the fourth anniversary of the space shuttle Columbia accident, the new Democratic majority in the U.S. Congress proposed sweeping cuts to NASA's budget that could jeopardized the future of space exploration. U.S. Representative Dave Weldon, of Florida, whose district represents many workers from NASA and Kennedy Space Center, called the cuts draconian, and accused the Democratic leadership as using NASA and the nation's space program as a piggy bank for other liberal spending priorities in an issued press release.

"The raid on NASA's budget has begun in earnest. The cuts announced today by House Democrat leaders, if approved by Congress, would be $500 million less than NASA's current budget," said Weldon. "Clearly, the new Democrat leadership in the House isn't interested in space exploration. Their omnibus proposal lists hundreds of new increases, including a $1.3 billion increase (over 40%) for a Global AIDS fund, all at the expense of NASA."

The joint resolution that cleared the House Appropriations Committee on January 30 provides no increase for NASA over its 2006 budget of $16.2 billion. The space agency had originally sought $16.79 billion for 2007, but the budget request was tossed out when Congress decided late in 2006 to scrap all spending bills that were left unfinished at the end of the last legislative session and instead fund most agencies at their 2006 levels. According to the new budget proposal, much of the proposed cuts would come from NASA's Exploration budget, which includes funding for the new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), the future replacement for the current shuttle fleet. According to congressman Weldon, these particular cuts would jeopardize thousands of jobs in Florida, Alabama, and Texas.

The Coalition for Space Exploration issued a statement regarding the budget proposal on February 1, stating the funding drawdown is, "heavy blow to America's space exploration program. It will extend the gap in human space flight beyond 2014 by delaying the development of the Orion spacecraft and Ares launch vehicle. It will also extend our nation's reliance on Russia for human space flight capability."

In a report published February 4, 2007 by Florida Today, if Congress clears a mid-year spending bill as planned, it will be the seventh time since 1994 that lawmakers have approved a cut for the nation's space agency, according to an analysis of NASA budget documents. In the past, Congress has approved these cuts to NASA's budget:

  • $553.8 million in fiscal 1995
  • $155.5 million in fiscal 1996
  • $131.7 million in fiscal 1997
  • $61 million in fiscal 1998
  • $51.3 million in fiscal 2000
  • $10.8 million in fiscal 2004

According to the Florida Today report, five of those cuts were during Republican-led Congresses.

Unless the U.S. Senate changed the spending levels, NASA's total budget for the current fiscal year will be about $16.2 billion, about $500 million less than the previous year's spending level. President George W. Bush had requested the Congress to approve a budget of nearly $16.8 billion for NASA, approximately $545 million more than the level included in the spending bill the House passed on February 3, 2007 by a vote of 286 to 140.

On February 14, the U.S. Senate voted for their final passage of House Resolution 20, a stripped-down spending measure that was previously approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on January 31. Its passage denied NASA and many other federal agencies a budget increase for 2007. For NASA, passage of H.R. 20 means the agency's remaining budget for the current fiscal year is capped at $16.2 billion, about $545 million less than it had requested for 2007.

Hardest hit by the recent funding cuts are the U.S. space agency's exploration program, which includes the cancellation of the Terrestrial Planet Finder and SIM Planet Quest, both managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Both missions were are part of an ongoing effort by NASA to find earthlike planets as possible homes for life in some form. Also placed at risk is the continuing development of Project Orion's CEV and Ares 1 rocket, NASA's proposed replacement vehicles for the space shuttle program. At present, both are planned to enter service by 2014, but could be delayed at least a year or more, widening the gap between its first flight after the drawdown of the space shuttle program by 2010. Such a gap would be similar to the six-year span of time of 1975-1981 between the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and the inaugural launch of space shuttle Columbia during the flight of STS-1.

However, as a result of the $545 million in approved cuts from NASA's original FY '07 funding request, NASA Administrator Dr. Michael Griffin plans to eliminate a robotic mission to the moon, cut educational programs for schoolchildren and delay development of Project Constellation. According to an April 6, 2007 story published in the Orlando Sentinel, a planned robotic mission to the moon would be eliminated in order to help free up more than $100 million in funding.

Dr. Griffin stated in a letter sent to Congress on March 15, 2007 that, "a robotic lunar lander is not absolutely required to reduce risk for future manned lunar landings." NASA also plans to cut programs that encourage student experiments, cancel the construction of a new education complex and reduce funding for an upcoming asteroid-research mission.

[edit] State by state distribution and breakdown of NASA's annual budget

NASA's annual budget breakdown by state

[edit] Sources

[edit] See also

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