The Five-High Cost Of The International Space Shuttle

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is perhaps the most well known space agency in the world. Since its formation in 19581, it has pioneered in space science, yet is also renowned for its large budget. NASA has the highest budget of any space agency, $18.6 billion2 in 2015, the equivalent of every American paying $54 towards the agency3, meaning 0.14% of total GDP is spent on NASA3 . This money is spent on the ISS, sending astronauts, probes and satellites into space, astrophysics and planetary science research, maintaining and developing NASA’s space telescopes (the Wide Field Infrared Survey telescope searching for dark energy and exoplanets, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope) and developing spacecraft2. Space exploration is an incredibly expensive process with one shuttle launch costing $450 million4 however NASA’s colossal budget benefits the USA greatly; the agency employs 18,000 people5 as astronauts, engineers, scientists and teachers and G. Scott Hubbard, former director of the NASA Ames Research Center estimates that every dollar spent on NASA returns $8 to the economy6.While this figure is an estimate, it demonstrates NASA’s worth and capacity for money making. NASA works on pioneering research and as its patents and licenses return to the US treasury, it

NASA had a favorable spending variance of $498,000 this year which means they spent 498,000 less than budgeted. The actual fixed cost per ton was around $519/ton.

To conclude my argument I can definitely say that space exploration is worth the cost. It generates wealth for America and can broaden the knowledge of many people across the country. As Kennedy said in his speech, “...we shall climb this wall with safety and speed and we shall explore the wonders on the other side.” With all the progress that has been made, humans can decide that space is indeed a

How would you like to explore a never-ending frontier filled with endless potential and possible benefits for humankind? When put this way, space exploration sounds like an enticing adventure. However, is it all that it’s chalked up to be? We’re here to answer that question. There’s a specific issue that we need to consider when referring to space exploration; should we continue to fund NASA? We acknowledge that some people may already have strong opinions on this, and we ask you to keep an open mind and try to avoid bias. After all, we’re discussing our future.

According to a pie chart called, “Federal Spending for United States - FY 2015” from the NASA Data Charts, the budget for space in 2015 is not a percentage significant enough to have its own section. Instead, it is a subsection of the heading Other Spendings, which is given 2% of the federal budget. Also, in the Neil deGrasse Tyson article, it is said that the American government only gives a 7/10 cent of a tax dollar to space exploration (Tyson 2). He gives a brilliant resolution by saying, “ I’d prefer that it were more, perhaps 2 cents on the dollar.” even though we used to “. . . peak NASA spending amounted to no more than 4 cents on the tax dollar”. One of the most important technological advance was the invention of the Hubble Space

The case study of the two shuttle disasters, the Challenger occurred on January 28th 1986, and the Columbia occurred on February 1st, 2003. Both majestic and yet mournful due to the loss of life on both mission. The Challenger shuttle flight, OV-099 mission STS-51-L, broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of all crew members which included five astronauts and two payload specialists. The Challenger disaster was especially traumatic because young students watched television that were placed in their classrooms so they could watch the launch that day. It was fascinating that a school teacher was on-board as a payload specialist (NASA, 1986.) With a school teacher aboard the flight, it had sparked many interests because at several at young age, understood that education was vital as to why there was such a failure and prevent future disasters.

America’s funding for NASA during the space race in 1966 was 4.41% of the federal budget yet in modern times this expenditure has fallen to only 0.5% of the federal budget. One might ask why, but the greater question is why isn’t anything being done about this dearth of funding for NASA. America should once again fund the exploration of space with a renewed ferocity because of the various educational, economical, and technological benefits of having well-funded space agencies.

If you were to look at a picture of a space ship, it'd be hard to fathom to the cost of building, manning, fueling, loading, and all the other work that goes into sending the craft into our solar system, but you could imagine it'd be a lot. (Source

Along with the technological advances and new theories of the last century, humans have developed a need to explore beyond the known of the final frontier. This resource of knowledge has led to superstitions and concerns about what could happen if people pursue this want of space exploration. Among these concerns are national finances, the world’s health, and ethical standpoints of what really could be waiting on the other side for those who dare venture into the unknown.

With only roughly $10 of the annual personal income tax going to NASA, it's a wonder how they make due with such a smaller budget. (1) President JFK had made it clear that he wanted them to do such a task before the end of the decade and they delivered on that. Now, it today's world, space travel is becoming more and more like it might be the new way to get around, similar how airports and airplanes helped change that as well. The one issue is that they can't do that or even help other countries, who have a much stronger space program, work on new ways to make such a thing possible. More recently, to get astronauts from the United States to the ISS, NASA has had to rely on the Russians to take them aboard their shuttles and up to the station. That says a lot when we were able to step foot on the moon and come back to tell the tale. Yet somehow the percentage of funding that they do receive is still too much for some to think that they get. How is NASA supposed to keep delivering on new ideas and inventions when they have to focus on how to get the astronauts into space? Well in truth, they can't. They have to focus on getting

The overall cost of spaceflight has always been an overlooked topic since before the STS program with the program that launched the first man to the moon, The Apollo Mission Program (1961-1975). The Apollo program was designed to be a tool in the cold war, it was the race to space between the United Sates of America and the U.S.S.R. The program’s funding was very high but it ultimately achieved the goal of a manned lunar expedition. The overall cost of the Apollo missions was about $170 Billion American dollars (based on 2005 currency), there were 17 total mission, making each mission about $10B/each. Once the Apollo missions accomplished their main goal, the Nation realized that it needed to sanction a new program to lift the heavily funded program, that where STS came into place. The Main goal of the STS was to replace the Apollo Program and drop the cost of space travel, and it did. At the end of the STS program the Total cost

Instead of moving forward with technology we are using technology that has been present but just redesigning and improving it. My intention here is that with private companies trying to find methods of making their own advance method of exploring space, it is evident that they plan to charge people to take them on these space travels. For example, Musk is making the airframe completely renovated with special welding, ‘stir welding,’ and Dragon, which are great ideas. With the progress of private companies, it is evident that we are getting closer to sending humans to space.

While NASA may have once been the leading space organization in the world, the cuts and budget changes are not giving NASA what it needs to succeed. Today, NASA makes up around .5%, or $17 billion, of the national budget. This number is much smaller than the 4.5% in 1966. The United States government is cutting many different organizations and administrations in an attempt to balance the budget. The launching of a NASA space shuttle alone costs around half a billions dollars. Along with research and other things being made by NASA, it is extremely hard for the administration to launch shuttles. The government is being forced to turn its money from NASA, due to the high cost of building and launching rockets, and pay the private companies to take materials and government equipment to the International Space Station. Because of the cuts, various NASA projects are being shut down and abandoned. In 2005, the funding cuts threatened the longest running mission that NASA was running at the time; the Voyager probes. The Voyager probes are two probes that are headed into

Space exploration is worth the money to discover new things and explore. Space exploration has helped so many people, and the space station is not using as much money as most people think NASA would use. “ In 2012, NASA was allocated $18.7 billion (PDF) from the federal government (less than 1% of the entire U.S budget) for further research and exploration. $3.8 billion of that will go specifically to space exploration.By

There is also a huge risk of the spread of sickness because astronauts live in such close quarters. “During space travel, exposure to microgravity, radiation, and stress alter human immunoregulatory responses, which can in turn impact an astronaut’s ability to prevent acquisition of infectious agents or reactivation of latent infection. In addition, microgravity affects virulence, growth kinetics, and biofilm formation of potential microbial pathogens.” (Mermel, 2013) This just shows some of the possible risks astronauts may encounter during a prolonged space flight such as one to the moon or another planet. Because of all these risks NASA has created an extensive screening process and materials to help counter the spread of disease and infection in a space craft. These advances not only help astronauts but they also have applications for us on earth. We have already seen many of these “spin off” technologies like the implantable pacemaker, Lasik eye surgery and the MRI and CAT scan.