Shuttle development costs in 2006

[JonClarke]

Does anyone know what the shuttle development costs (supposedly $10 billion in 1977 $$$ would be in 2006 $$$? Also, what the construction costs of say, Endevour would be in today's terms?<br /><br />thanks<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[qso1]

$32.45B dollars for shuttle development in 2006. The 1977 figure of $10B dollars is pretty accurate because the original request for shuttle development was capped at 5.5B dollars under the Nixon Admin. Of course, the late 1970s saw shuttle development problems which resulted in budget increases beyond the 1971 cap.<br /><br />$4.68B dollars for Endevour. I selected 1989 (And $3B dollars) as the base line just to get an idea since Endevour was not approved for construction till 1987 and was constructed largely from spare orbiter parts. Baseline price for an orbiter that I've generally seen in the past has been $2.7B dollars. I rounded to $3B dollars. The link below will help with the calcs.<br /><br />Another way to put in perspective:<br />NASA annual budget (Includes ISS, STS, unmanned etc) is about $16B dollars average.<br /><br />The deficit is averaging $400B dollars.<br /><br />http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

Great, just what I was after. the inflation calculator is really nifty.<br /><br />One more question. I am trying to find out the development cost of the spacelab program and the cost of an individual spacelab mission. The spacelab program was supposed to be $600 million in 1978, but I have not been able to find the cost of an individual mission - say spacelab-1.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[qso1]

I'll see if I can locate that data, I had a list of all the manned programs but not sure where it is. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[jeff10]

The shuttle disasters have no doubt added to the costs, though I don't know how much. These disasters could've been avoided had managers listened to engineers. How do you account for the cost of organizational failure that leads to higher insurance costs? Although not directly relevant, read this great paper which analyses the shuttle disasters from a management perspective: "why your boss is programmed to be a dictator" at http://www.changethis.com/19.BossDictator

 

[JonClarke]

I'm not interested in building a replacment Orbiter or new spacelab, I am just trying to discover what the development and construction costs were.<br /><br />Jon<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[qso1]

I'm working off memory at the moment till I find data if I have it but Spacelab development had swelled to $1B dollars by 1981 and each mission around $300 million. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

Thank you!<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[qso1]

Found my list but Spacelab was not individually listed. I did locate the only Spacelab source I have that mentioned Spacelab costs.<br /><br />From a book published in 1984 entitled "Spacelab, Research In Earth Orbit" by Shapland and Rycroft:<br /><br />Cost up to Spacelab-1 was $800 million dollars according to this book but I recalled $1 billion dollars. I'm sure it reached that point possibly later than what I originally stated (1981).<br /><br />The ten member Nations of what was then known as the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) financed the bulk of the program. The U.S. paid for shuttle side developments such as payload bay configurations.<br /><br />A total of 15 spacelab module and pallet missions were flown (1983-1998) not including missions such as OAST or OSTA. Not certain what each mission cost but each shuttle flight was $500 million. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>