The cost of the space for the NASA

The Space Review dedicates an interesting article about the cost of the spatial activities of the USA, a topic of which it is very difficult to find precise information due to the problem of the adjustment of the inflation and other corrections. According to the article of Lafleur, we can use the following numbers - in dollars of 2010 - as reference:

• Cost of the Program Apollo: 110 billion dollars.
• Mercury: 1600 millions.
• Gemini: 7300 millions.
• Skylab: 10 billions.
• Apollo-Soyuz (North American part): billion.
• Spatial ferry: 198,6 billions.
• Entire ISS: 150 billions until 2015.
  
• ISS (USA): 72,4 billions.
• ISS (Russia): 12 billions.
• (THIS) ISS: 5 billions.
• ISS (Japan): 5 billions.
• ISS (Canada): 2 billions.

Of course, to interpret this information we must bear in mind the different extension in the time of every program. As an image costs more than thousand words, this nice graph will allow us to understand better these numbers:

He is worth while comparing these numbers with the graphs on the American crewed spatial program that appeared in the report of the Commission Augustine. For example, here we have the evolution of the budget of the NASA in proportion American GDP (without correcting the inflation):

Or it is different, very similar, of the budget of the NASA with regard to the federal budget:

In the report also this graph of the budget was appearing after correcting the inflation:

In this another graph we can see the percentage of expense of the budget of the NASA in the crewed spatial program (red line):

At present, the NASA dedicates 50 % approximately to these activities, a number quite lower than what many people think.

Budget of the NASA for 2007 compared with that of other spatial agencies.
These numbers reveal that, although the age Apollo implied the highest expense level, it was not supernatural at all compared with the current budget. Unfortunately, also there is shown up the money thrown to the garbage in projects that did not end in anything, how the SEI of Bush father or Constellation Program of Bush son.