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The Apollo program was about $120B in today's money all said and done. And that's with 1960's manufacturing processes. The complete Gemini program was about $

The Apollo program was about $120B in today's money all said and done. And that's with 1960's manufacturing processes. The complete Gemini program was about $10B. Blue Origin is up to ~$10B already and hasn't even gone orbital yet.

WalterBright 5y ago
I googled "cost of Apollo program" and it comes to $257 billion in today's dollars. Also, the economy was considerably smaller in those days, and so the Apollo program took up a much larger share of it.
- monocasa 5y ago
  I've seen a lot of numbers, how about we go with Wiki's $156 and cut the difference? And it doesn't matter what the rest of the economy was doing if we've converted it to today's numbers. The argument you were making was that government was intrinsically bloated, but from my view these private orgs are barely keeping up with 1960s .gov.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    Since you're leaving off half the cost, it does make the government bloat look slimmer :-)
- aylmao 5y ago
  > Also, the economy was considerably smaller in those days, and so the Apollo program took up a much larger share of it. Isn't that what adjusting to today's dollars essentially does? Those $28 billion were back then what $257 billion are in today's economy.
  - dboreham 5y ago
    No. I think parent means that the economy was smaller in real terms. E.g. the population was lower.
    - WalterBright 5y ago
      I read somewhere that 400,000 people worked on the Apollo program.
  - gameman144 5y ago
    Not quite: The purchasing power of a dollar has grown ~8.5x over the past 60 years. The US GDP has grown about 38x in that same time.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    > Isn't that what adjusting to today's dollars essentially does? To make it more obvious, a town council spending $1 million on a project is a much bigger undertaking (for them) than a country spending $1 million. It has nothing to do with inflation. I.e. consider it as percentage of GDP.
TigeriusKirk 5y ago
Why did the Apollo program stop?
- dboreham 5y ago
  Too expensive; had achieved goal.

WalterBright 5y ago

I googled "cost of Apollo program" and it comes to $257 billion in today's dollars. Also, the economy was considerably smaller in those days, and so the Apollo program took up a much larger share of it.

monocasa 5y ago
I've seen a lot of numbers, how about we go with Wiki's $156 and cut the difference? And it doesn't matter what the rest of the economy was doing if we've converted it to today's numbers. The argument you were making was that government was intrinsically bloated, but from my view these private orgs are barely keeping up with 1960s .gov.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  Since you're leaving off half the cost, it does make the government bloat look slimmer :-)
aylmao 5y ago
> Also, the economy was considerably smaller in those days, and so the Apollo program took up a much larger share of it. Isn't that what adjusting to today's dollars essentially does? Those $28 billion were back then what $257 billion are in today's economy.
- dboreham 5y ago
  No. I think parent means that the economy was smaller in real terms. E.g. the population was lower.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    I read somewhere that 400,000 people worked on the Apollo program.
- gameman144 5y ago
  Not quite: The purchasing power of a dollar has grown ~8.5x over the past 60 years. The US GDP has grown about 38x in that same time.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  > Isn't that what adjusting to today's dollars essentially does? To make it more obvious, a town council spending $1 million on a project is a much bigger undertaking (for them) than a country spending $1 million. It has nothing to do with inflation. I.e. consider it as percentage of GDP.

TigeriusKirk 5y ago

Why did the Apollo program stop?

dboreham 5y ago
Too expensive; had achieved goal.