NASA actually has enough money. SpaceX Falcon 9 FT (mostly re-usable) 50,000 lbs to low earth orbit (LEO) Cost: Substantially less than $62M with re-usablity

NASA actually has enough money. SpaceX Falcon 9 FT (mostly re-usable) 50,000 lbs to low earth orbit (LEO) Cost: Substantially less than $62M with re-usablity SpaceX Falcon Heavy (mostly re-usable) 140,000 lbs to LEO Cost: $90M Blue Origin New Glenn (mostly re-usable) 100,000 lbs to LEO Cost: expected under $100M. SpaceX BFR (fully re-usable) 330,000 lbs to LEO Cost: Expected less than Falcon 9 NASA SLS (Space Launch System) (disposable, destroyed every launch) Block 1 (2020): 150,000 lbs to LEO Block 1B (2022): 230,000 lbs to LEO Block 2 (2029): 290,000 lbs to LEO Cost: $500M+ per launch $1B+ a year in operational costs (for 1-2 launches a year) $20B+ in developmental costs NASA is blowing at least $3B a year paying Boeing and other contractors to build the SLS when far cheaper alternatives are either available or imminent. The cost of your Lunar or Mars exploration program is directly determined by your launch costs, and Congress has forced NASA to choose the most expensive possible launch system. Because it's built in Alabama. Using commercial launch capacity to operate the manned space program would not only free up billions a year, but accelerate it (the SLS won't be carrying humans until mid 2022 at the earliest). $3B a year could pay for a half dozen to a dozen Falcon Heavy manned launches a year with capsules, support, everything, starting in late 2019. They could be used to assemble lunar and mars size transit ships in orbit, and actually send people to the moon and mars before 2022. It could also pay for as many as six huge interplanetary robotic probes, every year. We could re-visit every planet yearly with ever more capable scientific instruments. Or a combination of the manned and robotic plans. But instead, the huge flow of money keeps the congressional delegation in Alabama secure in their seats, while crushing the dream of any actual NASA manned space program to the moon or mars ever. The SLS has missed every schedule date, and it's really unlikely congress is going to fully fund the program when the SLS is working. And the SLS spending is gutting actually super cost effective robotic probe spending. Even if funded, NASA's plan never has more than 2 launches per year, and it's first Mars launch is planned for 2033. If nothing else ever slips.