Comments on: CBO report on NASA exploration plan

By: Harold LaValley

Harold LaValley — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 19:15:05 +0000

The report and its figures can also be used to hamper any future spending request by Nasa for new projects, since it sort of establishes base line figures for each type.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 15:30:49 +0000

“One thing I’m wondering: Why are they saying it will cost this much and take this long now? Didn’t it take much less time in the 60s? Wasn’t it cheaper too?”

Perhaps it would help if you actually bothered to read the CBO report. There is a helpful bar chart on page 18 that compares costs.

By: Arthur Smith

Arthur Smith — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 14:30:20 +0000

Mark, this isn’t a repeat of Apollo, it’s establishment of long-term man-tended or inhabited structures on the surface, and actually learning to make use of lunar resources. At least I assume that’s the program that’s being analyzed here. So comparison to Apollo isn’t necessarily valid. That said, it does seem a bit on the high side.

By: Mark Zinthefer

Mark Zinthefer — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 13:55:46 +0000

So $2 billion more than keeping the shuttle. How much will be saved if we get out of ISS? Has to be more than the other $2 billion.

One thing I’m wondering: Why are they saying it will cost this much and take this long now? Didn’t it take much less time in the 60s? Wasn’t it cheaper too? Does anyone know what Mercury/Gemini/Apollo cost in today’s dollars? It had to have been less. I’d love to see NASA’s reasoning.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 13:47:26 +0000

The original NASA FY04 Shuttle budget for FY04 was $3,986,400,000 for five shuttle flights and some development work ($96.8M goes to the latter). See http://ifmp.nasa.gov/codeb/budget2004/24-Space_Shuttle.pdf.

By: Dogsbd

Dogsbd — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 12:56:08 +0000

All esimates I’ve ever seen on shuttle cost per year have ran 4-5 billion, don’t believe I’ve ever seen it esimated as low as 3 billion.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 02:58:45 +0000

“So that looks like about $6 billion per year. Isn’t that about what the shuttle costs?”

No. Shuttle is about half of that.

By: Mark Zinthefer

Mark Zinthefer — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 02:16:41 +0000

So that looks like about $6 billion per year. Isn’t that about what the shuttle costs?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Sep 2004 22:04:11 +0000

Regarding the issue of reserves, you have to understand what “reserves” usually means in government budgets–they are not money that is sitting around to be used for overruns. As it was explained to me, reserves are usually allocated for lots of little extras that the programmers simply do not want to put in the main budget, they are not backup funds to be used when you run into problems. In other words, if your main project overruns, you cannot borrow from the reserves. The CBO report takes this into account.