MOSCOW — The Russian space program received less than half the funding it was due in the first five months, leaving it unable to replace aging satellites, Russia's space chief said Wednesday.
Russia's satellite fleet has shrunk in half over the past decade because the cash-strapped government is unable to pay for more orbiters, Aerospace Agency chief Yuri Koptev said. More than 85 percent of the still-functioning spacecraft have already served out their lifetime, Koptev told the lower house of parliament.
State funding for the space program in January-May was only 41 percent, he said. Koptev said he hoped the situation would improve next year, but provided no figures.
"We pin much hope on next year's budget, that it will allocate the amount necessary to fulfill the program of space development approved by the state," Koptev told parliament.
The country is running short of weather forecast satellites, which are launched every two years, he said.
Only 90 of the more than 700 satellites that are orbiting the Earth are Russian, he said. These include 30 research and 43 military satellites, and the rest are dual-purpose, he said.
Russia feels bitterly the decline of its space program, which once surpassed the American program in many spheres.
Russia was forced to abandon its 15-year-old Mir space station this spring, and resents playing a secondary role on the international space station.
The Russian space program earns much of its revenues through commercial launches of foreign satellites. Russia carried out 34 satellite launches last year, out of the world's total of 85, Koptev said. He did not specify how many satellites were put into orbit.
"Russia's space potential is a real thing," he said. "It exists and is able to ... realize our export potential in full."
Russia also carried the world's first space tourist, American financier Dennis Tito, to the international space station this spring. The U.S. space agency NASA strongly objected to the mission, for which Tito paid up to $20 million.