Q&A: Chandra Mission

Q:
How much did Chandra cost?

A:
The breakdown of Chandra (now in its 18th year**) costs, in real year dollars, from development through 15 years of operations is as follows:

Pre-Phase A through Development plus Construction of Calibration Facility ($18M): $1586M

Launch Costs: Shuttle ($383M), Inertial Upper Stage ($77M), Tracking & Data ($2M): $462M

Pre-launch MO&DA to develop mission ops center and science center (full ground capabilities): $225M

Post Launch Operations and Data Analysis (years 1-5): $316M

Post Launch Operations and Data Analysis (years 6-10): $306M

Post Launch Operations and Data Analysis (years 11-15): $293M

 

Revised: ** May 2017