Roskosmos to increase defense spending and cut spending on Vostochny
According to the explanatory note to the draft law on the federal budget for 2023 and for the planning period of 2024 and 2025, “Roscosmos” will increase funds for defense research and development of armaments but reduce expenditures for the spaceport Vostochny.
It is planned to allocate 4.28 billion rubles more on “research in the field of development of weapons, military and special equipment and military equipment for the supply of products (works, services) to meet the requirements of the state defense order” in 2023 than in 2022.
Financing of studies related to “armaments, military and special equipment, as well as military-technical equipment for creation of advanced launch vehicles and spacecraft” in 2023 must increase by 21.4 billion rubles.
The decrease in spending on Vostochny in 2023 may be due to the postponement of the commissioning of the first stage of the cosmodrome and cost optimization. Specifically, because of this, Vostochny’s funding will decrease by 508.7 million rubles in 2023.
In September, Yonhap reported with reference to the Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology of the Republic of Korea that the country would refuse to use Russian rockets to launch its own spacecraft.
