How much did Apollo program cost to build?
The Apollo program was NASA's human lunar-exploration programme, announced as a successor to Project Mercury in July 1960 and given its defining goal by President John F. Kennedy on 25 May 1961: land a person on the Moon and return them safely before the decade ended. NASA flew uncrewed development missions followed by eleven crewed missions between 1968 and 1972. Six missions landed twelve astronauts on the Moon, beginning with Apollo 11 in July 1969, and returned about 382 kilograms of lunar material. Apollo 17 splashed down on 19 December 1972 and concluded the lunar programme. NASA's historical account gives a lifetime cost of USD 25.4 billion in nominal programme-era dollars; a later reconstruction of NASA budget submissions calculates USD 25.8 billion when indirect facilities, salaries and tracking costs are included. Apollo hardware later supported Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz, but those were separate follow-on programmes rather than extensions of the lunar Apollo cost and schedule recorded here.
Final project cost
$25.4 billion
Cost basis: 1973
Cost record
How the cost changed
Budgets, contracts and final costs may cover different stages. Each figure keeps its own year and source.
Final project cost
1973$25.4 billion
NASA Office of Inspector GeneralOriginal budget
1961$20 billion
NASA Office of Inspector GeneralContract value
1972$3.8 billion
NASA Office of Inspector GeneralRevised budget
1967$23.19 billion
NASAReported project cost
1973$25.8 billion
DOI recordProject record