MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. Russia is cutting by several billion dollars its state space program for 2016-2025, a source in the space sector told TASS on Monday.

“The total budget will make 2.4 trillion roubles ($42 billion), of which 2.15 trillion ($38 billion) will come from the budget. One of the reasons to cut the budget is the Finance Ministry’s order to reduce at least by 5% the state spending. Thus, financing of the space program will be cut by several hundred billion roubles,” the source said.

In October, a source in the space sector told TASS the authority requested from the federal budget 2.1 trillion roubles ($37 billion), and about 250 billion roubles ($4.39 billion) would come from own assets and revenues from space projects. Thus, against the program for 2006-2015, the state space agency, Roscosmos, plans to attract threefold financing both from the budget and from other sources.