Laws, policies, and executive speeches may outline the objectives of a space
program, but fiscal and budgetary concerns both constrain and shape the actual
implementation of space policy. Understanding the budgeting priorities of a
space program is a complex and challenging endeavor. This part of the website
will bring together resources and analysis on the often obscure space budgets
of the United States and China.
United States
1. Center for Strategic and Budget Analysis (English)
2. Congressional Budget Office: A Budgetary Analysis of NASA's New Vision for
Space Exploration (English)
3. Congressional Research Service: NASA FY05 Budget Overview (PDF) (English)
China
China space program budget remains relatively opaque. China's White
Paper[1] and other official documents on space activities do not provide
budgetary figures, though they state the great prominence of the space program
and its vital contribution to "achieving the fundamental demands of its modernization
drive". Former Minister for the Commission of Technology and Industry for National
Defense, stated[7] that "Space development is a reflection
of comprehensive national strength". All of this reflects the fact that Beijing
is likely devoting significant government resources to China's space activities.
A number of unofficial statements on various aspects of China's manned space
program have been made but they vary in dimension and scope and thus provide
only vague clues about budgetary numbers. Expenditures for the Shenzhou
V[3] manned space program were estimated to be ￥1 billion (~$120 million)
and a total cost for China's manned space program up to 2003 and over an 11
year period at approximately ￥18 billion (~$2.15 billion). The China National
Space Administrator, Sun Laiyan, disclosed[4] that the
development of China's space industry is an annual ￥2 billion (~$240 million).
Western analysts[5] consistently doubt these figures claiming
there are issues of currency conversion, labor wage differentials and that the
Chinese space research and development sector is integrated to a degree with
that of the military, making expenditures on manned spaceflight difficult to
isolate. China's Naval Logistics Institute[6] of the People's
Liberation Army, where research is conducted on issues of statistical difference
between Western and Chinese budgetary estimates of China's space program, suggests
this is mainly because western countries do not understand the parameters of
China national defense expenses and the mechanism of the Chinese military economy,
thus creating a difference in methods of calculation and comparison between
the two sides.
Estimates of China's space activities by western sources vary considerably.
Though unsupported by documentation, western media report that China's annual
spending on space activities is between $1.3 billion to $3 billion. There are
also claims that China has invested tens of billions of dollars in its military-linked
space program. Most studies estimate China's space program costing around $1.5
to $2 billion per year, comparable to what Japan spends, and far more than Russia.
This compares to the budget of $6 billion annually for the European Space Agency
and the $15.5 billion a year NASA gets in the United States, outside of unclassified
U.S. military space programs command a further $8.5 billion a year in federal
spending.
Detailed explanation of China's spending in launch vehicles, rocketry, satellite
technology and other programs, coming soon.
Source Documents:
1. China's Space Activities (English/中文版) 2. China's Long March Into Space (English) 3. Press Conference by the Director of China's Manned Space
Program Office (中文版) 4. Outlays devoted to China Aerospace is about ￥2 billion
a year (中文版) 5. China seeks entry to astronauts
club (English) 6. The Calculation of China's National Defense Outlay Performed
by the Western Countries: Differences and Problems (中文版) 7. China Launch Won't Ignite New Space
Race, Analysts Say (English)
