NASA Budget Heads for Stratosphere

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration came into being on Oct. 1, 1958, a year after the Soviet Union launched the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, whose beep-beep-beep alarmed and embarrassed America.

Congress gave the new space effort $331 million for the first year of operation.

The spending has been on an upward slope most years since, rising significantly as each new manned space program was “ramping up.”

For the year 1962, when Alan Shepard became the first American to make a suborbital flight, NASA’s appropriation was $1.8 billion. In each of the years 1964, 1965 and 1966, the spending topped $5 billion as hardware was built for the Apollo moon program.

In 1969, when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, spending was under $4 billion and it remained there until 1978, when America was building its space shuttle fleet. In 1980, the year before the first shuttle flight, the spending went to $5.2 billion, and in 1982, it crossed the $6-billion line.

In 1984, the year Ronald Reagan proposed a space station, NASA spending topped $7 billion. In 1987, the year after the $2.1-billion Challenger was destroyed and its replacement was being built, NASA got $10.6 billion.

Space station spending and continued shuttle flights brought the spending to $12.3 billion in 1990 and $14 billion in 1991. It has been in the $14-billion range since then.

Plans are to spend $1.9 billion a year in the next six years and then $1.3 billion in the year 2000 when the space station is to be ready for occupancy.