How does NASA raise money for missions?

NASA is a govt agency

But it runs on a budget -- with money voted by Congress

NASA submits proposals - hoping for funding

But many times the funding is not made available.

And funding for existing projects can be reduced or even stopped.

In the days of the moon landings, money was easy to come by.

Because Congress wanted to beat the Russians to the moon.

There is no more similar projects that command such public support.

So the future looks pretty bleak

A ray of hope lies with China ... who are going it alone and intend to send people to the moon in the 2020s

China is likely to then claim the moon as Chinese territory.

They don't put much stock in international treaties.

So that might get an injection of funding into NASA

... or it might not

It's a popularity contest against other competing organisations. The competition is getting more determined, and NASA is feeling the pinch which is why their publicity department is showing signs of desperation by appealing to popular fantasies about space boogers in order to dredge up support.

Cheers!

Congress provides funding to NASA; they allow appropriations to go to research, actual missions, and planning. NASA does as Congress directs, sometimes abandoning programs, or delaying the start of others.

NASA gets about 0.047 of the whole budget of the US federal government, with that money they can fund different kinds of missions, also private space exploration companies like spaceX could give them money to use their starting points and stuff like that.

By operating a weekend Lemonade Stand on Biscayne Blvd. in Ft. Lauderdale.

Funding from congress supports them. Perhaps they can sell mugs and T-shirts like MarsOne to raise extra funds. Note: only mugs buy these items from MarsOne. Perhaps the items will become collectable one day

They are paid by teh government

The government pays them money through grants

they sell cookies at local malls.