CBO Warns of Higher Exploration Price Tag

If past is precedent, NASA’s plan to land astronauts on the moon by 2020 while scouting Mars for future human explorers will cost considerably more than current agency projections, according to a newly released study.
The study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), dated September 2004, suggests that carrying out the new exploration agenda on the schedule laid out by NASA could increase total agency spending through 2020 by an estimated 12 to 23 percent above the agency’s current projection of $271 billion. The NASA estimate assumes that its annual funding will remain relatively flat over the period, with adjustments for inflation.