Russian space program to match NASA’s annual budget—over the next decade

NASA subsidizes the Russian space program through astronaut launches, like Jeff Williams on March 18, but for how much longer? (credit: NASA)

When it comes to space, Russia talks a good game. It speaks of sending humans to the Moon in 2029. It is building a large, $3 billion cosmodrome in far Eastern Russia. And at present it can boast of being NASA's only means of getting astronauts to the International Space Station.

But behind a reliable program of aging rockets that date to the 1960s (the Soyuz and Proton launch vehicles), most of Russia's successes have come in conjunction with NASA during the last two decades. Beyond this participation in the space station program, however, lies a much beleaguered science program. Russia has not had a successful interplanetary mission in more than three decades since 1984’s launch of Vega 2, a probe to Venus and Halley’s Comet.

Now comes more concern for the Russian space program. Amid the country's budget problems due to a slump in oil prices and western sanctions for its intervention into Ukraine, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev intends to cut funding for Russia's space program by 30 percent, Reuters has reported.

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