The Actual Cost of Mars Phoenix is $520 Million

Editor’s note: According to NASA PAO: “Phoenix leveraged the 2001 lander investment to produce a polar lander for a mission cost of $420M. The Mars 2001 Lander was approximately 71% complete at cancellation and the sunk costs were estimated to be $100M. It is difficult to determine the exact costs since the lander was being developed along side the orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and both spacecraft were treated as one project. However, here’s what we have:

2001 Lander = $100M
Storage = $250K
Phoenix = $420M (Full cost LCC $419.6M, Launch vehicle $90.3M, Spacecraft $295.7M, Phase E $33.6M)”

As such, the total cost for Mars Phoenix is $100 million spent on the original 2001 lander, plus $250K to store it, and then $420 million for the Mars Phoenix project or a total of $520 million.