SOCHI, November 12. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting on Thursday on the national space activity priorities for the period until 2025, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. According to Peskov, the meeting will focus on "the program for development and upgrade of the country’s space industry and space activity."
The Kremlin spokesman said that the president would continue the series of meetings on armed forces sphere on November 12. "This everyday process is scheduled for the whole week," Peskov said.
The first version of the new Federal Space Program with the funding volume of 2.4 trillion roubles ($37 billion) was published this spring. It is planned, in particular, to create a new manned spacecraft, to launch four lunar missions using automatic stations, to create several modules for the International Space Station and develop the country’s satellite constellation.
A source in the space industry told TASS that the spending might be cut down to less than 1.5 trillion roubles ($23 billion). Meanwhile, the 2016 draft budget indicates that the federal space program financing in 2016-2025 will amount to about 2 trillion roubles ($31 billion), including some 113.72 billion roubles ($1.76 billion) - in 2016.
In early November, head of the state corporation Roscosmos Igor Komarov said that three drafts of the 10-year federal space programme had been prepared, including those providing for its budget cutting by 15% and 25% from the declared sum.