Burning Lots of Money Just to Recreate Apollo 8

New report: NASA spends 72 cents of every SLS dollar on overhead costs, Ars Technica

"... according to a new report published by the nonpartisan think tank Center for a New American Security, NASA has spent $19 billion on rockets, first on Ares I and V, and now on the SLS. Additionally, the agency has spent $13.9 billion on the Orion spacecraft. The agency hopes to finally fly its first crewed mission with the new vehicles in 2021. If it does so, the report estimates the agency will have spent $43 billion before that first flight, essentially a reprise of the Apollo 8 mission around the Moon.

... The new report argues that, given these high costs, NASA should turn over the construction of rockets and spacecraft to the private sector. It buttresses this argument with a remarkable claim about the "overhead" costs associated with the NASA-led programs."

Keith's note: $43 billion in one dollar bills would stretch 4,166,700 miles or 17 times the distance to the Moon. Just sayin'.

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