When late in 2003 Energia Space Rocket Corporation went broke again, the Russian government upon the president's order took the decision to increase budgetary allocations by 2.5 billion rubles ($1 is approximately 29 rubles). In fact, only 1.5 billion was received. The ministries and agencies do not comply with an extremely important governmental decision, so Energia had to obtain bank credits, and currently it owes about 1.5 billion rubles.
According to experts' estimates, production of a rocket, spacecraft (either manned or cargo) and orbiting cost about 1 billion rubles. It takes 4 Progress spacecraft and 2 Soyuz spacecraft a year to support the ISS operation, which is about 6 billion. While buffer stock, which is building spacecraft for 2006 and 2007, should also be taken care of as well as the works on the promising Clipper manned cargo shuttle. And finally, the debt in the amount of 1.5 billion should be repaid.
So, the volume of the necessary baseline funding for the next year, according to Energia's estimates, is 9.73 billion rubles, while the draft state order for 2005 with regard to the ISS provides for allocations in the amount of 6.94 rubles.
In the opinion of Energia's deputy chief designer, pilot-cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union Valery Ryumin, the ISS will not be able to fly without Soyuz, because it is a rescue spacecraft for the crew. "Closing the ISS would be a fatal error, because it would mean burial of a very important international project", he believes.
