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RE: RE: starship-design: Space Money



Actually, according to the reference I gave, those budget figures DO
include money to maintain those facilities (and construct new ones),
although only for the percentage of the facility that is dedicated to
Shuttle.  In fact, cash goes to every major NASA center.  Obviously most
of it goes to JSC and KSC.  And, no, the cost of the missions is not
included.  For FY1996 this was $323,000,000.  It drops by 1/3 over the
next two years.  But when we're trying to determine how much a shuttle
mission costs, you don't include it's cargo.  But let's say we did.  Now
we're at $9,630 per pound.  This figure does not include actual analysis
of data, which is in a different allocation (Science) - but I think this
is really off-limits for consideration in the cost of space-flight.
Anyway, let's take the -entire- Human Space Flight budget for FY1996,
which includes Shuttle, Payloads and Utilization, Space Station (my old
division, recall), and US/Russian.  This is $5.7 billion.  Now we get
$15,833 per pound of cargo.  This is more in-line with your figures, but
I wonder how old they are?  Considering I had to throw all of those
other budgets together...  The budget -can- change drastically from year
to year.

Just for general information, NASA's FY1998 estimates show:
1. Human Space Flight (i.e. Station and Shuttle, including all related
activities) = 41%
2. Science (including Education Outreach) = 40%
3. Communications, Core Infrastructure, Civil Service = 18%
4. Auditing = 1%

I also don't doubt that in the past Shuttle took up to 67%, as that
really is not too different from the current allocations.  It's still
the biggest (barely).  But I think that NASA's policies have been
changing over the last couple of years (remember, also, these figures
are for -1998-).  After all, Dan Goldin's warning was serious...

Also, I don't disagree with you that the cost of Shuttle is enormous.
It is indeed staggering.  I think we just disagree on the level of
insanity.

------------------------------------------------------
David Levine                     david@actionworld.com
Director of Development    http://www.actionworld.com/
ActionWorld, Inc.                       (212) 387-8200
Professional Driver.  Closed Track.  Do not attempt.

> ----------
> From: 	KellySt@aol.com[SMTP:KellySt@aol.com]
> NASA uses some budget tricks to hide the expenses.  I.E. Shuttle
> budget only
> shows the direct cost to service the shuttle.  It doesn't include the
> cost to
> matain the facilities around the country (KSc, JSC, HQ, etc) that are
> only
> used to service the shuttle, or the cost of the missions the shuttle
> flies.
> 
> At NASA HQ (and the GAO) they estrimated as much as 2.3rds of NASA
> budget
> went to shuttle support.  Goldin told the department I was in (office
> of
> space access tech) that if they couldn't develope a cheaper system
> shuttle
> would consume NASA, and the agency would be forced to shut down all
> manned
> opps.
>