Russian space agency, Roscosmos, announces that the government is revising the scale of its space programme. There is a possibility that the government may make a cut of billions of dollars to the space agency’s moon exploration plans.
Government ministries are busy in revising the space programme up to 2025. Factors behind the cut include low oil prices, western sanctions and a declining rouble. The ambitious space programme seems to have fallen prey to these factors. Even the nation’s economy has declined more than 4%.
Not only space programme will witness cut, but everything from the health sector to the World Cup are going to face big spending cuts. It has been said that big spending cuts have been proposed to the moon exploration programme.
Roscosmos has proposed to cut the manned flight segment of lunar exploration by 88.5bn roubles to 329.67bn roubles. But the agency also mentioned that the funding required to build a spaceship that will fly to the moon would not be much affected.
“The revised project of the federal space programme for 2016-25 envisages the study of the Moon by automated orbiters, as well as by building up scientific and technical potential for further studies, including by manned missions”, said Roscosmos.
The agency also announced that its first manned flight around the moon would not take place before 2029. Roscosmos has not provided details of the cuts, but said that the revised programme is quite extensive.
It has also not provided details on whether the nation’s plans for a Moon base are still active. Roscosmos affirmed that the first manned flight around the moon would not take place before 2029. The Soviet-built N-1 heavy rocket that was built with an aim to take cosmonauts to the moon did not achieve even a single successful flight. But the United States, its Cold War rival, made six manned landings on the moon between 1969 and 1972.
The TRIBUNE notes that, several Russian government ministries were engaged in revising the space programme up to 2025, Roscosmos said in a written statement to Reuters.
It did not give details. But the Roscosmos statement and a report in Izvestia newspaper suggested Russia’s prestigious space programme may also have fallen victim to government cutbacks brought on by hard times.
In a statement provided to Sputnik News, Russia has significantly reduced its dependency on foreign remote sensing satellites, Russia's space agency Roscosmos said Tuesday.
"A significant reduction has been noted in the use of foreign Earth remote sensing satellites, which is linked to the provision of similar data by Russian space devices," the agency said in a statement.
In other news VOA reported, Buffeted by low oil prices, Western sanctions and a falling ruble, the Russian government is scaling back its spending plans for everything from the health sector to welfare.
Izvestia published details of what it said was a draft proposal sent by Roscosmos to the government that showed big spending cuts in the moon exploration program were being proposed.
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