The NASA Budget

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America went to the moon with big pockets, putting forth one of the biggest and most successful investments the US government has had yet. America walked on the moon the day of July 20th 1969, we know how we got there, but how much did it cost to arrive? John F Kennedy(JFK) proposed NASA reach the moon with a total budget of “$109 billion dollars in 2010 dollars”(Lafleur 2010). These numbers include only the total cost of the Apollo program itself, not including any other missions or projects NASA had at the time. It was a colossal amount of money to pull from where? JFK described this in his 1962 speech as “More than 50 cents a week for every man, women, and child in the united states”(Kennedy 1962). Today we stand by the most advanced engineers, …show more content…

From 2012 the budget was sitting dry at $17.8 billion dollars, as of October 2017 the budget will be announced at $19.5 billion dollars. Its definitely not the $109 billion dollars we wish to see for NASA but any addition is a great one. “The extra money means NASA has a better chance of pulling off its primary missions on schedule”(Verge 2016). The new budget also lead to a big jump for astronauts, considering how much money goes to Russian Soyuz rockets to send them into space. Roughly $80 million dollars per seat, but new budget means US rockets once again, “NASA scores a big win for its commercial crew program” (Verge 2016). Increasing budgets has also lead to great celebration due to the planned launch dates for rockets. On occasion rocket launches would move forward and eventually fall off the calendar due to constant delay, eventually leading a rocket to never make the build. NASA administrator Charles Bolden has argued frequently, “The first launches would ultimately slip into 2018 without enough money”(Verge 2016). Good news is NASA’s other major projects get big boosts as well. The Space Launch System (SLS) the expandable rocket NASA is constructing to take astronauts into interstellar space and on to Mars, it will be receiving “$2 billion, which is $300 million more than the program received for 2015”(Verge 2015). As NASA described this all “Its mostly good news all around”, Another great leap is the legislation set aside $175 million for a mission beyond Mars. Jupiters icy moon Europa would be the next stop in the solar system, “leading candidate for finding extraterrestrial life”(Verge 2016). The best part about this all, the bill directs NASA to do this all no later than

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