Pluto Like You've Never Seen it Before

[Statistical]

34. NASA budget is non-military, the problem is Congress (and space pork).

The Airforce is too paranoid to let anyone else involved in their space projects. I worked for ULA (before they were ULA) and the security measures were insane. It generally added $50M or more to the $200M to $300M+ normal launch cost. I have never worked on that side of the house but it is my understand that it is the same is for designing, building, and shipping the spacecraft as well.

The real problem with NASA is they are forced to do what Congress tells them to do. That includes things like building the Space Launch System (costing $18B+ so far, probably closer to $40B before it launches the first non-test payload). Even if it makes projections it will cost more than any other modern booster to use something on the order of $500M to $1,500M per launch. Nobody is expecting it to be used more than once a year so lets be nice and say it is used 20 times in 20 years @ $1B each plus $40B in development that works out to an amortized cost of $3B per launch. Now it can lift 70MT to LEO but that is still a staggering $42,000 per kg which is about 3x to 5x any other launcher. It is a rocket to nowhere but Congress FORCES NASA to build it. It is nicknamed the Senate Launch System.