The Russian government was already paying their space agency pennies, but it just got a lot worse
On Monday, Igor Komarov, the director of Roscosmos — Russia's version of NASA — announced that the space agency will receive a total of $22.5 billion dollars in government funding over the next 10 years.
That might sound like a lot, but it's close to how much NASA gets from the federal government each year. In 2015, alone, NASA received approximately $18 billion, and is projected to get a similar amount each year through 2019.
Moreover, the latest Roscosmos budget is half the amount that the decade-long planning document called the Federal Space Program (FSP) 2016-2025 laid out earlier this year.
Komarov explained why in a statement:
“Based on today's economic situation, the funding for activities in the FSP is set at [1.521 trillion] rubles ($22.5 billion),” Komarov said, according to the The Moscow Times. “We have optimized the program, maintaining key projects … which will allow the industry to develop.”
Right now, it's unclear how this drastic cut will impact Russia's goal to land their first cosmonauts on the moon — an ambitious effort that they announced earlier this year.
The latest budget cut is the third Roscosmos has suffered this year.
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