Russian Official Upbeat on Space Research Prospects

Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS

Moscow, 2 October: Up to R6bn is to be spent on fundamental space research in Russia in the next five years, according to Deputy Director of the Federal Space Agency [FSA] Gennadiy Dmitriyev. He was speaking to journalists at the opening of Space Science Days in Moscow today. He stressed that “this is only the budget money”.

Gennadiy Dmitriyev said the FSA was working on a federal space programme that is to run until 2015. “We are firmly standing on our own two feet, and I am certain there will be a breakthrough in space research,” he said.

Replying to a question about the prospects for a manned flight to Mars, the FSA chief expressed the conviction that it was impossible in the near future. “If we embarked on such a programme, all others would have to be closed down,” Dmitriyev said. He said “all the world’s space agencies are working on unmanned space research, which will be able to provide answers to almost all the questions that interest scientists”.

Commenting on the prospects for space research, Academician Aleksandr Boyarchuk said: “In the field of astrophysics we are working on the Radioastron programme, in planetary research it’s Fobos-Grunt and in the study of the sun it’s Koronos-Foton.” According to the scientist, launches of these craft are possible before 2010.