The scientific and space activities of NASA, already in 2019 with the Artemis Moon-Mars mission only beginning development of many of its systems, were generating $65 billion in economic activity and supporting 312,000 skilled jobs in the U.S. economy, according to a study released Sept. 25 for NASA by the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Marshall Space Flight Center. Thus NASA was creating $3 in economic and research activity for every dollar in its budget. The Artemis project alone generated $14 billion in economic activity, 69,000 jobs and $1.5 billion in federal taxes, the tax revenue alone representing 30% of the Artemis budget for Fiscal Year 2019.
The study found that NASA’s Moon-Mars mission activity was generating more than one-fifth of the agency’s total economic impact in 2019, and estimated it would generate 40% of that total generated economic production and research, and that the total activity itself will rise rapidly, in FY 2021.
Just a first glance at the summary of the report shows that NASA’s work also created over $11 billion in R&D investment, about 9% of total R&D spending in the entire economy in 2019 — and that R&D is likely to have the greatest impact of any. NASA research and development has been “spinning off” 40-50 new technologies each year since 1975 into the U.S. and world economies. One such technology this year, referenced in the report, is the new ventilator specifically designed at the Jet Propulsion Lab for coronavirus patients, developed in just over a month and made available to manufacturers free.
