July 20th marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing in the Sea of Tranquility, the first time any human stepped foot on the moon.
The endeavor came 11 years after the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the government agency created in response to the Soviet Union reaching space first.
The moon landing was part of the Apollo Project that cost more than $150 billion in modern-day dollars. Since Apollo, which resulted in 12 men walking on the moon, the size of NASA’s budget (adjusted for inflation) has shrunk, as did its share of federal spending.
