What Apollo Teaches About Lunar Cost
What did it cost to land people on the Moon the first time, and what does that history tell us about today's programmes?
Chapter summary
Apollo landed twelve astronauts in six missions between 1969 and 1972 for about $25.8 billion in the money of the day, roughly $250 billion or more at today's prices on the Planetary Society's estimate.
Key takeaways
- 1
It was fast because it was funded as a national emergency, peaking at over 4% of the federal budget, and it stopped because nothing in the architecture became cheaper with use: every Saturn V, command module and lunar module was thrown away.
- 2
Today's programmes are trying to avoid that trap with reusable rockets, fixed-price contracts and infrastructure that stays on the surface.
- 3
The lesson is that cost per landing falls only if hardware is reused and flights are frequent.
Key figures in this chapter
- 6
- crewed landings, 1969–1972
- 382 kg
- samples returned
- ~$25.8B
- then-year cost (~$250B+ today)
- ~12.5 days
- total time on the surface
Source: NASA; Planetary Society
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