Every four years, the United States inaugurates a President. Whether incumbent or newcomer, and regardless of party, these events can cost quite a bit of money–including a great deal that comes from taxpayers. Federal funds go largely to cover security, transportation, and clean-up after the event, while private donations cover the lavish balls and banquets that come after the swearing-in ceremony itself.

Numbers from the 2017 Inauguration are not yet published, but this most recent Inauguration was widely expected to cost as much as $175 or even $200 million. Of that amount, it is broadly expected that approximately $60 million would be funded via donations, with the remaining ~$140 million or more coming from federal funds.

These figure would be more or less in keeping with past expenditures. Dating back to President Reagan’s first inauguration in 1981, the inflation-adjusted private expenditures for newly elected Presidents have all come in between approximately $55 and $60 million; while public expenditures in 2005 and 2009 were an inflation adjusted $146 million and $138 million.

What would 140 million taxpayer dollars buy if they were spent on space? Well, for starters, it would have paid for the rocket that launched the same day as the 2017 Inauguration.

About eight hours after the swearing in, an Atlas V rocket blasted off from Space Launch Complex 41 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying a national security satellite. The Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellite was the third of its type to be launched to geosynchronous orbit. Along with the others in the constellation, SBIRS GEO-3 will be used to continuously monitor the Earth for missile launches, as well as providing situational awareness to US soldiers, firefighters, and disaster responders. The 10,000 pound satellite itself cost over a billion dollars, but the launch, which was conducted on the 401 variant of the Atlas V, came in at approximately $100 million.

The next SBIRS GEO satellite–which will complete the initial SBIRS GEO constellation–is slated for launch later this year on the slightly more powerful and slightly more expensive Atlas V 411 configuration.

We’ll revisit the numbers from 2017 once they are published by the Federal Election Commission, and will make a corrections post as well as updating this post should if they prove significantly off-base.





Sources:

Private expenditures on Inauguration data comes from FEC filings. Public expenditures can be gleaned from Maryland, Virginia, and District of Columbia budget filings (the states and the District are reimbursed by the Federal Government) as well as Congressional records. More conveniently, summary data have been broadly published by newspapers such as the Washington Post without dispute.

US Inflation is always calculated using the Consumer Price Index-driven Inflation Calculator provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Obtaining precise information about the cost of the SBIRS launch is essentially impossible, as the SBIRS GEO-3 launch and the upcoming -4 launch were part of earlier block buys. However, past comments from United Launch Alliance officials have indicated that current pricing for the Atlas V 401 is “under $100 million.” Using the nifty ‘Rocket Builder’ online pricing tool provided by ULA, you can see that the off-the-shelf price of the Atlas V 401 is approximately $109 million.

Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy, via the Obama White House account on Flickr.