AIA | Space Exploration & The National Interest

	Intro
	Truth in Space Budgeting
	The Real Connection
	Space and National Security
	Building International Alliances
	The Global Space Race
	The Mysteries of the Ecosystem
	About AIA
	Photo Credits

Truth in Space Budgeting

NASA consumes a fraction of the federal government's budget and has never diverted resources from national defense or human services programs.

NASA's spending allocation of about $17 billion translates into 0.7 percent of the 2.7 trillion dollar federal budget. This trend started more than 30 years ago, meaning that for approximately 36 of its 48 years in existence, NASA has accounted for less than one penny of every federal dollar expended.

Even during the agency's peak budget years of the 1960s when the nation began to reap the benefits of the Apollo program, NASA barely represented four percent of the federal budget. No trade-offs exist between NASA and other priority programs. While NASA claims far less than one percent of the federal budget, anti-poverty programs and national defense each total about 16 percent.

Finally, during the Clinton and Bush administrations, the NASA budget decreased or experienced modest growth. By contrast, just between 2001 and 2003, domestic discretionary spending rose by $103 billion.