01. How much does it cost to build a Space Shuttle? (A K2S Question)

From The Space Library

That's a very difficult question. The original costs varied from Shuttle to Shuttle. The early ones, like Columbia, cost approximately $2 billion, in round numbers. The later ones cost even more. This number does not include the costs of the research and development that went into designing and testing the Shuttle. Overall, if you look at the entire history of the Space Shuttle program starting in the early '70's to the present day, some unofficial estimates put the total cost of designing, building, upgrading, and maintaining the Space Shuttle program and all of its facilities at around $150 billion. Of course at this point, the Space Shuttle program is facing retirement in 2010, so in a very short while we will not have the capability to build or fly another one at any cost, short of starting from scratch.

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Answer provided by Ben Reytblat

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer

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