State support for space exploration not enough - Russian Aerospace head
Posted on: Thursday, 29 January 2004, 06:00 CST
Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS
Moscow, 29 January: "Real help from the state" started coming in place of "political rhetoric about the importance and need to develop the Russian space programme but this help is still not sufficient", Russian Aerospace Agency head Yuriy Koptev told a news conference today.
"In the budget for 2004 expenditure on the space programme is increased up to R15bn [about 500m dollars], and this is a positive development," although our level of space funding is comparable to India's, he stressed. At the same time, according to him, last year Russia carried out 21 space launches against two launches by India.
Koptev was pleased to say that at the end of last year the Russian government had allocated R1.5bn as additional funding for the Russian part of the International Space Station. "It allowed us to solve our chronic credit indebtedness and make a good reserve for 2004," Koptev said.
According to Koptev, "not counting NASA, which has a budget of 15.4bn dollars for this year, our main partners in space research and space exploration have 2004 budgets to the tune of 2bn dollars". "Meanwhile, the Russian space budget is just over 0.5bn dollars," he lamented.
Related Articles
- Lost in Space: Russian Gear, US Paperwork
- USAF General Stresses Importance of Space
- 2004 California Space Enterprise Strategic Plan Targeted at Retaining California's Leadership in Space
- Snow: Space Plan Won't Undermine Budget
- Space Station Threatened by Budget Cuts
- First Woman in Space Rooting for Chinese
- Magnificent Hubble Space Telescope Images Chosen for 2004 Calendar
- Senate Cuts Space Station Budget
- Russian Space Agency Gets Big Budget Boost
- Additional Funding Will Secure Russia's Status As Space Power - Koptev
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds