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SpaceX's Falcon Heavy was developed on a budget roughly equal to 10 days worth of NASA's annual funding.
by tengbretson 6y ago
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy was developed on a budget roughly equal to 10 days worth of NASA's annual funding.
- craftinator 6y agoDo you have a source for that? If true, that's absolutely amazing.
- tengbretson 6y agoThis article quoted Musk as saying the falcon heavy cost "over $500 million" and that it had been awarded contracts worth $500-750 million that recouped its investment. So let's pin it at $600 mil for this comparison. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/13/spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket-one-year-later-business-case.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/13/spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket-o... NASA's 2020 budget of $22.6 billion from here: https://www.planetary.org/get-involved/be-a-space-advocate/become-an-expert/fy2020-nasa-budget.html https://www.planetary.org/get-involved/be-a-space-advocate/b... 22.6 billion * (10/365) = $712 million
- TYPE_FASTER 6y agoNASA's budget also includes astronaut training, educational outreach, and a ton of other programs. There's a categorical breakout of the NASA budget here: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/fy2021_summary_budget_brief.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/fy2021_...
- mturmon 6y agoTo mention a few more, the NASA budget includes human operations (ISS), and the entire science enterprise (Earth, Planetary, Astrophysics) - things including Hubble, JWST, Curiosity.
- dimator 6y agoThis seems like a pointless comparison. Why should one SpaceX program be compared to all of what NASA does? It would be like saying "angry birds was developed with 10 days worth of Microsoft's annual budget".
- NikolaeVarius 6y agoThis is a meaningless comparison.