Costs of Apollo and the Shuttle Program

The Man Who Ran the Moon: James E. Webb and the Secret History of Project Apollo by Piers Bizony describes how in 1961, the original cost projections for Apollo were $10 billion. Webb then said “Come on guys, you're doing this on the basis that everything's going to work every time, every place, no matter what you do.”

New cost projections came in at $13 billion. Webb then went onto the Hill and calmly informed Congress that Apollo would cost upwards of $20 billion.

When he was questioned about the figure back at NASA headquarters, Webb replied that he'd “put an administrator's discount on it”.

By the cusp of the first manned lunar landing in July 1969, the funding profile was:

Chariots for Apollo – NASA SP-4205 (1979) – Appendix H
Program Costs as of 30 June 1969
(Millions of then-Year Dollars)

Program Area

FY60

FY61

FY62

FY63

FY64

FY65

FY66

FY67

FY68

FY69

TOTAL

Adv. Technical Dev. Studies

0.10

1.0

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

1.1

Orbital Flight Tests

–

–

63.9

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

63.9

Biomedical Flight Tests

–

–

16.55

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

16.55

High Speed Re-entry Tests

–

–

27.55

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

27.55

Spacecraft Development

–

–

52.0

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

52.0

Command & service modules

–

–

–

$345.00

$545.87

$577.83

$615.00

$560.40

$455.30

$346.00

$3,445.40

Lunar module

–

–

–

$123.10

$135.00

$242.60

$310.80

$472.50

$399.60

$326.00

$2,009.60

Guidance & navigation system

–

–

–

$32.40

$91.50

$81.04

$115.00

$76.65

$113.00

$43.90

$553.49

Integration, reliability, & checkout

–

–

–

$0.00

$60.70

$24.76

$34.40

$29.98

$66.60

$65.10

$281.54

Instrumentation & scientific equipment

–

–

–

$11.50

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$11.50

Operational support

–

–

–

$2.50

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$2.50

Supporting development

–

–

–

$3.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$3.00

Little Joe II development

–

–

–

$8.80

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$8.80

10 Saturn I launch vehicles

–

–

–

$90.86

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$90.86

Saturn I

–

–

–

$0.00

$187.08

$40.27

$0.80

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$228.15

Saturn IB

–

–

–

$0.00

$146.82

$262.69

$274.19

$236.60

$146.60

$41.35

$1,108.25

Saturn V

–

–

–

$0.00

$763.38

$964.92

$1,177.32

$1,135.60

$998.90

$534.45

$5,574.57

Engine development

–

–

–

$0.00

$166.00

$166.30

$134.10

$49.80

$18.70

$0.00

$534.90

Apollo mission support

–

–

–

$0.00

$133.10

$170.54

$210.39

$243.90

$296.80

$0.00

$1,054.73

Spacecraft support

–

–

–

$0.00

$0.00

$83.66

$95.40

$110.77

$60.50

$121.80

$472.13

Manned space flight operations

–

–

–

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$546.40

$546.40

Totals for that Fiscal Year

0.10

1.0

160.0

$617.16

$2,229.45

$2,614.61

$2,967.40

$2,916.20

$2,556.00

$2,025.00

$16,086.92

The final cost of Apollo, as calculated by NASA in 1973; was about $25.4 billion, against Webb's $20 billion “Administrator's Discount”.

COST ESTIMATES - LAUNCH VEHICLES c.1964

Source:
NASA-CR-75973: Study of an Advanced Mission Planning and Evaluation Methodology: Supporting Data (Classified Volume) for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory – December 1964 (1.9 MB PDF)

The costs of conventional launch vehicles are presented in Table 4. These data are for the 1968 - 1969 time period and are based on a ten-per-year launch rate for five years. The costs are for the basic vehicle hardware and for launch vehicle support.

TABLE IV – LAUNCH VEHICLE COSTS

Launch Vehicle

Cost - $M dollars

Thor

2.0

Atlas

2.3

Thor/Delta

2.5

Thor/Agena B

5.3

Thorad D/Agena D

6.5

Centaur

7.5

Atlas/Agena D

7.8

Titan II

8.8

Atlas/Centaur

10.0

Titan GLV – Gemini Launch Vehicle

10.4

Titan IIIA

17.0

Saturn I

19.0

Saturn IB

20.5

Titan IIIC

26.6

Saturn V

63.0

Interim Costs (as cited at the time)

Study of an Evolutionary Interim Earth Orbit Program (6 April 1971)
By NASA Advanced Concepts and Missions Division

Restarting Saturn IB Production: $70 million ($376.89 million in 2010 Dollars)
Restarting S-IVB Production: $30 million ($161.52 million in 2010 Dollars)
Restarting S-IC/S-II Production (for INT-21): $130 million ($699.93 million in 2010 Dollars)
Restarting Apollo CSM Production: $100 million ($538.41 million in 2010 Dollars)
Saturn IB Costs: $50 million ($269.20 million in 2010 Dollars)
Saturn INT-21 Costs: $80 million ($430.73 million in 2010 Dollars)
Apollo CSM Costs: $45 million ($242.28 million in 2010 Dollars)
Manned Spaceflight Costs: $500-600~ million annually ($2.69 to $3.23 billion in 2010 Dollars) to run Houston, KSC and MSFN/DSN with several launches each year.

Apollo 15 Press Kit (1971)
By NASA

Saturn V: $185 million ($966 million in 2010 Dollars)
Apollo CSM: $65 million ($350 million in 2010 Dollars)
Apollo LEM: $50 million ($267 million in 2010 Dollars)
Operations: $105 million ($565 million in 2010 Dollars)
Science Payload: $40 million ($215 million in 2010 Dollars)

Nuclear Shuttle System Definition Study, Phase III Final Report – Volume I Executive Summary (May 1971)
By McDonnell Douglas Astronautics

Note: Costs are given in GFY 1971 dollars in the original document.

Space Shuttle Operational Cost Per Launch: $5 million ($26.92 million in 2010 Dollars).
Saturn INT-21 Cost: $95 million ($511.49 million in 2010 Dollars)
Saturn INT-21 Launch Cost: $12 million ($64.61 million in 2010 Dollars)
Saturn INT-21 Total Cost: $107 million ($576.1 million in 2010 Dollars)

“NASA Recommendations” (31 January 1977)
By Carter Mondale Transition Planning Group

Space Shuttle Cost Per Launch: $13 million in 1976 dollars ($49.82 million in 2010 Dollars).

SP-4012 Volumes III and V
Space Shuttle Program Funding to Launch in 1981
(Millions of Then-Year Dollars)

Year

Orbiter

Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME)

Solid Rocket Boosters

External Tank

STS
(Total)

1970

$8.30

$4.20

$0.00

$0.00

$12.50

1971

$47.00

$20.90

$0.00

$0.00

$78.50

1972

$15.00

$45.10

$0.00

$0.00

$100.00

1973

$139.48

$40.54

$1.70

$0.00

$198.58

1974

$363.13

$82.31

$8.57

$18.10

$475.00

1975

$634.76

$95.30

$21.14

$34.00

$797.50

1976

$867.34

$140.80

$82.24

$65.70

$1,206.00

1977

$899.40

$182.20

$100.40

$84.00

$1,413.10

1978

$813.06

$197.40

$105.00

$88.03

$1,349.20

1979

$992.30

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

$1,638.30

1980

$1,214.50

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

$1,871.00

1981

$1,289.50

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

$1,995.00

Total

$7,283.76

$808.75
(1970-78)

$319.05
(1970-78)

$289.83
(1970-78)

$11,134.68