What was NASA’s original Parker Solar Probe life-cycle cost baseline?
Parker Solar Probe is a NASA spacecraft built to fly through the Sun's outer atmosphere. Its heat shield and repeated Venus flybys allow it to make measurements far closer to the Sun than earlier missions.
Published project estimate
$1.553 billion
Cost basis: 2014
The short answer
$1.553 billion
NASA's Office of Inspector General reported a project life-cycle cost of $1.553 billion through the end of planned operations. That mission-wide number is the BudgetGuessr answer.
Cost evidence
Basis of the published figure
What the number includes
Cost scope
The amount covers the NASA project's life cycle through planned operations. It is broader than a spacecraft manufacturing contract and should not be treated as an inflation-adjusted 2026 price.
Project record
Opened or launched
NASA Office of Inspector General (IG-15-024)2018
Project context
About Parker Solar Probe
The probe launched in 2018 and progressively tightened its solar orbit. The mission's unusual thermal engineering and flight profile make its cost difficult to compare with a conventional Earth-orbiting satellite.
Reading the data
How to interpret the figure
Because the source reports US dollars, no exchange rate is applied. Clueterra records 2015 as the source cost year and keeps the nominal-dollar amount intact.