Budget spatial 2013: Roscosmos rattrape l'ESA

Russian space budget gets major boost in 2013

According to the official federal budget approved by President Putin on Dec. 3, 2012, Roskosmos would receive 167,630 billion rubles ($5.5 - 5.174 billion) during the year, increasing its share in the federal spending by 0.11 percent from 1.14 percent in 2012, Igor Lisov, a leading expert in space budget reported. The Russian space budget would grow by 16.4 percent comparing to the previous year, for the first time bringing the Russian space program to the same funding level ($5.2 billion; €4,02 billion) as that of the European Space Agency, ESA. Russia would still spend only 29-33 percent from the amount of money that NASA would have available during the year ($17.8 billion), Lisov estimated.