Don't forget what NASA's motto was during the 1960s...
"Waste anything but time."
NASA funding during the period, adjusted for inflation, was much higher than today's budget. Here's a NASA reference for their budgets from 1959 through 1971 (Table 7-2). I've added a column for the appropriation adjusted for inflation to today's dollars using the inflation calculatoravailable here.
Let's see if this works (probably not):
Year
·
Appropriation ($ Millions)
·
Adjusted for Inflation
($ Millions)
1960
·
485.1
·
2951.57
1961
·
964.0
·
5806.57
1962
·
1825.3
·
10885.32
1963
·
3674.1
·
21624.36
1964
·
5100.0
·
29629.35
1965
·
5250.0
·
30016.67
1966
·
5175.0
·
28765.97
1967
·
4968.0
·
26788.53
1968
·
4588.9
·
23748.88
1969
·
3995.3
·
19606.36
1970
·
3696.6
·
17158.70
1971
·
3268.7
·
14535.63