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Cost of New Horizons
The New Horizons project cost $780.6 million. $565 million was spent on spacecraft development and launch. $215.6 million was spent on 12 years of prime mission operations. After beginning its extended mission in 2017, New Horizon's average operations costs are $14.7 million per year, when adjusted for inflation.
New Horizons accounted for 0.0000015% of all spending by the United States during the 17-year period covering its development and prime mission.
New Horizons cost per fiscal year. New Horizons began formulation in fiscal year 2002 and implementation (build) phase the following year. After launch in January 2006 the project began its prime mission, which carried it through the Pluto encounter in 2015 and subsequent years to ensure full downlink of all data. Extended mission operations began in 2017. Source: Planetary Science Budget Dataset, compiled by Casey Dreier for The Planetary Society (accessible on Google Sheets or downloadable as an Excel file).
| Development & Launch | $565 million |
| Prime Mission Operations (12 years) | $215.6 million |
| Total | $780.6 million |
| Extended mission operations (avg) | $14.7 million / year (inflation adjusted) |
Raw data available in Planetary Exploration Budget Dataset.
New Horizons, exploring Pluto and the Kuiper Belt
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was the first mission to fly past the Kuiper Belt worlds Pluto and Arrokoth.