What did NASA estimate for Deep Impact development and operations, excluding the launch vehicle?
NASA sent a two-part spacecraft to Comet Tempel 1: an impactor struck the nucleus while a flyby vehicle observed the collision. Its pre-launch press kit assigned $252 million to spacecraft development and $15 million to operations, or $267 million in total. The launch vehicle was explicitly excluded from that total.
Published project estimate
$267 million
Cost basis: 2004
NASA/JPLPublic domain
Cost evidence
Basis of the published figure
Published project estimate2004
Project metrics
Key dimensions
- MassNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- 601 kg