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US bets on space through expanding NASA budget, Russian space corporation's chief says

Dmitry Rogozin added that the budget of Roscosmos is several times lower in comparison to NASA

MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/. The planned expansion of NASA budget means that the US places its bets on the development of its space industry, chief of Russian space corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said on Twitter on Tuesday. He added that the budget of Roscosmos is several times lower in comparison to NASA.

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"In a budget proposal for 2021 published yesterday, the [US President Donald] Trump’s administration requests a 12% increase in NASA’s budget (from $22.6 bln to $25.2 bln). This is the largest expansion of NASA’s budget in decades (which still was much bigger than that of Roscosmos). So we can say that the US is betting on space," Rogozin said.

The Roscosmos press service informed TASS that the total budget of the organization for civilian space programs in 2020 is not much higher than the proposed 12% increase of NASA’s budget planned for 2021. "The open budget of the Roscosmos state corporation (not including defense industry orders - TASS) for 2020 comes up to 176 bln rubles (about $2.8 bln). This sum is not much higher than the 12% proposed for the expansion of the US space agency’s budget in 2021," the press service said.

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The current NASA budget reaches 22.6 bln dollars, which means that the 2021 increase will constitute about $2.6 bln.

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