If the Space Race was all about who spends the most money, the United States would win, hands down.
A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD for short, released on Oct. 23, analyzed the budgets of dozens of national space programs. The report found that in 2013 the U.S. spent nearly $40 billion on its space program. This was more than three times that of China, the second biggest spender last year. In fact, the U.S. spent more money on space last year than any other country combined.
Here were the top 10 highest spenders on space last year:
1. United States: $39.332 billion
2. China: $10.774 billion
3. Russia: $8.691 billion
4. India: $4.267 billion
5. Japan: $3.421 billion
6. France: $2.43 billion
7. Germany: $1.626 billion
8. Italy: $1.223 billion
9. Korea: $0.411 billion
10. Canada: $0.395 billion
Check out the full list of 39 countries here.
When adjusted for population, U.S. spending on space isn't quite as impressive, but it's still big. The U.S. spent about twice that of any other country last year per capita. However, U.S. spending on space has decreased slightly, according to the OECD report.
Most of the money the U.S. spends on space is, unsurprisingly, for programs and activities performed by NASA, which cost roughly $18 billion in 2013. Funds were allocated to things like science, space operations like the International Space Station and exploration. What may surprise some people is that the U.S. space budget also includes activities that fall under the purview of the Department of Defense, Department of Energy and Department of Transportation, among others.
But what will this list look like 10 years from now? It's commonly known that the U.S. space program has taken a few hits in the past few years. NASA ended its space shuttle program in 2011, and since then, the U.S. has been using Russian rockets and capsules to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station. There are hopes that the contracts with Boeing and SpaceX announced last month to develop space taxis will end the country's dependence on Russia.
However, not only does the U.S. need to worry about the state of its own program, but it also needs to worry about the growth and development of foreign space programs. Russia has of course always been a competitor of the U.S. in the space exploration arena. Now India and China are really ramping up their efforts with a recent successful mission to Mars and a spacecraft launch to enter lunar orbit, respectively.
Buckle your seat belts, folks, because the latest Space Race just got more interesting.
