How much does the U.S. government spend on space?

Steps

1. No API. Downloaded six OMB Excel tables once each. Read subfunction 252 and function 250 from Table 3.2 and NASA from Table 4.1 for fiscal years 1962 to 2025, and GDP and the price index from Table 10.1. Checks: 251 plus 252 equals the function 250 total in every year; total outlays are equal in Tables 3.2 and 4.1 and within $60 million of Table 8.1; Table 10.1's total composite deflator applied to Table 8.1's total outlays reproduces Table 8.2's constant-dollar total within $0.35 billion in every year (largest gap 0.05); GDP agrees with Table 1.2 within 1% and total outlays over GDP agrees with Table 1.2 within 0.05 percentage points. Every share, constant-dollar value and decade average on the page is recomputed from the rows.
2. Outlays are federal spending in the fiscal year (money paid out), not appropriations. The measure of space spending is subfunction 252 of the federal budget, Space flight, research, and supporting activities, which tracks NASA's spending closely: NASA's own outlays (Table 4.1) are 1.01 to 1.134 times it in every year. Constant dollars divide each year's outlays by the GDP chained price index in Table 10.1 (fiscal year 2017 = 1.000). Shares are of total federal outlays (Table 3.2) and of GDP (Table 10.1, fiscal year). Fiscal years 1962 to 1976 ended on June 30; since 1977 they end on September 30, with a three-month transition quarter (TQ) in between that is left out of the yearly series.

64 yearly rows (fiscal years 1962 to 2025). Unit: Millions of dollars of outlays per fiscal year (current dollars), or billions of constant fiscal year 2017 dollars. Every derived figure on this page (changes, indexes, averages, counts) is computed from the published rows, and the table under each chart says how.

Checks

• Function 250 (general science, space and technology) equals subfunction 251 plus subfunction 252 in every year; total outlays are the same in Tables 3.2 and 4.1 and within $60 million of Table 8.1.
• Table 10.1's total composite deflator applied to Table 8.1's total outlays reproduces Table 8.2's constant-dollar total in every year (largest gap $0.05 billion), so the deflator table is read correctly. Space spending itself is deflated with the GDP chained price index, because OMB publishes no constant-dollar series for subfunction 252.
• GDP in Table 10.1 agrees with Table 1.2, and total outlays over GDP agrees with Table 1.2's percentage within 0.05 percentage points in every year.
• NASA's own outlays in Table 4.1 are 1.01 to 1.134 times subfunction 252 in every year, as expected, since NASA also funds aeronautics and other work outside subfunction 252. The page uses subfunction 252.

Caveats

• Subfunction 252 is civil space as the federal budget classifies it. Military space (launch, satellites and the Space Force) sits inside national defense and is not separated in these tables, so total U.S. government spending on space is larger than the figure shown. Weather satellites paid for through NOAA are in another function. Outlays follow when money is spent, so a year can differ from the funding Congress passed. Constant dollars use a general price index; launch and aerospace costs have not moved with it. The 2026 to 2031 figures are OMB's estimates in the FY 2027 budget and will change.
• Outlays are what the government paid in the year, not what Congress appropriated, so launches that cost money in one year can be paid for in another.
• Subfunction 252 is not 'investment' in the national-accounts sense; it is the federal budget's line for space flight, research and supporting activities.

Releases and revisions

• Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2027, Historical Tables (files dated April 2026)
• OMB publishes the Historical Tables with each year's President's Budget. Next: re-run space_investment.py after the FY 2028 tables appear.