Annual cost of NASA's manned lunar landing program 1961-1969

Between the years 1961 and 1969, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) invested approximately 21.4 billion dollars on their Manned Lunar Landing Program, (including the Apollo Program), which equates to approximately 165 billion dollars in June 2019. The largest amount of money was invested between the years 1964 and 1967, with over 3 billion dollars being allocated to the program each year.

The Apollo Program
The Apollo Program was launched in 1961, originally to transport more than one human into space at a time, but the focus then shifted to landing man on the moon, after President John F. Kennedy's speech in 1962. This speech was made in the midst of the 'space race' where the US and the USSR unofficially competed with one another to see who could make the most significant advancements and discoveries in space. The USSR led the way early on, by putting the first man-made satellite into Earth's orbit (Sputnik 1), as well as launching the first man (Yuri Gargarin) and woman (Valentina Tereshkova) into space, in 1961 and 1963 respectively. The US then overtook the USSR in 1969, when they finally accomplished Kennedy's goal of landing man on the moon, almost six years after his assassination.