Steven Petryk
(probably to scale)
Photo credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
European Space Agency, 2015
Photo credit: Wikimedia Foundation
$17.65B
FY2014 budget
(0.5% of $3.78 trillion budget)
Source: Phil Plait, 2015 & Washington Post, 2013
NASA historically is in 16th-20th place in terms of national budget allocation.
Source: Washington Post, 2013
$866 B
$627 B
$542 B
$531 B
$443 B
$30 B
...
Despite all of this, the budget is decreasing at a rate of 1% per year (Plait, 2015).
Photo credit: Wikimedia Foundation
Space travel allows for: