The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates defense and civilian agencies will spend nearly $44 billion on space launches and related activities between fiscal years 2014 and 2018.Sixty-five percent of that figure is allocated for acquisition funding and 26 percent is for research, development, test and evaluation work, GAO said Monday.
GAO found the Defense Department plans to spend $16 billion on its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program and NASA expects to spend $12 billion on transporting crew and cargo to the International Space Station.
NASA also expects the RDT&E budget requirements to reach $10.5 billion between fiscal 2014 and 2018 and estimates the Space Launch System to require $7 billion.
DoD will invest $719 million in launch development activities over the next four fiscal years, according to GAO.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee for investigations asked GAO in April to assess agencies’ funding requirements for procurement and launch development work.
