Cost of Mars InSight

NASA's costs for the InSight mission are expected to be $813.6 million. Of this amount, $596.3 million was spent on spacecraft development and $163.4 million was spent for the Atlas V-401 launch vehicle. Prime mission operations are expected to cost approximately $53.9 million over 2 years. International contributions for the project's science instruments account for an additional $180 million to InSight’s total cost.

InSight accounted for 0.0023% of all spending by the United States during the 9-years of its development and prime mission operations.

Original $ | Inflation-Adj $

InSight costs by fiscal year, U.S. contributions only. The project entered formulation in September of 2012. Technical issues with one its instruments delayed InSight's launch from 2016 to 2018. After launch in May of 2018, the InSight project moved from development to its operational phase. Source: Planetary Science Budget Dataset, compiled by Casey Dreier for The Planetary Society (accessible on Google Sheets or downloadable as an Excel file).

Spacecraft Development$596.3 million
Launch Vehicle (Atlas V 401)$163.4 million
Mission Operations (2 years)$53.9 million
U.S. Total$813.6 million
International Contributions$180 million
Total$993.6 million

Raw data available in Planetary Exploration Budget Dataset.

InSight, NASA's Mars lander that studied the planet's interior

InSight was a Mars lander studying the red planet's interior to learn how other worlds are made.