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Historical NASA Budget Dataset

The Planetary Society maintains a comprehensive, open dataset that tracks NASA's annual budget requests, congressional appropriations, and final obligated expenditures from fiscal year (FY) 1959 to the present.

It is updated twice each year, after the release of the Presidential Budget Request (PBR) and after passage of congressional appropriations.

These data and related charts are free to use under the Creative Commons BY 4.0 license.

Access the Data

NASA Historical Budget Workbook
Includes all sheets below, plus detailed fiscal year summaries through 2008		 Excel Google Sheets

Or, access key data from the full source:

NASA Budget by Year
Presidential request, enacted, and actual spent, 1959–present, nominal dollars		 CSV XLSX Sheet
NASA Budget by Year (Inflation-Adjusted)
Adjusted via the NASA New Start Index		 CSV XLSX Sheet
NASA Total Science Spending
Composite science activities total, 1978–present		 CSV XLSX Sheet
Science by Major Division
Planetary, Astrophysics, Heliophysics, and Earth Science, 1960-present		 CSV XLSX Sheet
Directorate spending
Expenditures by directorate, FY 2008-present		 CSV XLSX Sheet
Workforce Data
NASA civil servant full-time equivalents (FTEs), 1958-present		 CSV XLSX Sheet

What's in This Dataset

The workbook contains more than two dozen sheets, primarily of two major types:

Historical Tables

  • NASA Budget by Year: Total agency budget from 1958 to present: White House request, congressional appropriation, outlays, and year-over-year changes, in nominal dollars.
  • NASA Budget by Year (Inflation-Adjusted):The same series expressed in real dollars adjusted using NASA's New Start Index (NNSI).
  • NASA Science by Year: Composite space science spending from FY 1978.
  • NASA Science Divisions by Year: Spending broken out by equivalent divisions of Planetary Science, Astrophysics, Heliophysics, and Earth Science, from FY 1960.
  • Directorates by Year: Tracks expenditures by the modern directorate/major account structure (Science, Exploration, Space Operations, etc.), from FY 2008.
  • Workforce Data: NASA civil servant full-time equivalents (FTEs), from FY 1958.

Fiscal Year Overview Sheets

  • FY 2008 - present: Each fiscal year sheet includes a more detailed breakdown of the agency's requested, appropriated, and final obligated amounts by program and major account.

Sources

Budget data is compiled from three primary sources:

  • Requested, enacted, and actual (obligated) top-line and directorate-level amounts, and detailed fiscal year program listings, are from NASA's annual congressional budget submissions.
  • Outlays, GDP, and overall U.S. spending and discretionary spending amounts are from Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Historical Tables.
  • Workforce data is compiled from NASA's historical databooks and NASA's congressional budget justifications.

Inflation adjustments use NASA's New Start Index (NNSI), a composite index created by the agency's Office of the Chief Financial Officer and designed specifically for aerospace projects.

How to Cite This Dataset

Dreier, Casey. "Historical NASA Budget Dataset." The Planetary Society, YEAR. https://planetary.org/space-policy/nasa-budget/historical

(Replace YEAR with the current year).