ISS CONSTRUCTION MUST BE A STATE PROGRAMME IN RUSSIA








KOROLEV /MOSCOW REGION/, March 1. /RIA Novosti's correspondent Eduard Puzyrev/. Construction of the International Space Station must be given the status of a state programme in Russia. For that its State Duma (the lower chamber of Russian parliament) is to adopt a relative resolution, opined Academician Yuri Semenov, reports the RIA Novosti correspondent. Semenov is the president of the Energia Space Rocketry Corporation, technical chief of manned space research programmes and a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 


	In his opinion, the federal budget should allocate sums for ISS construction as "a separate item". "Otherwise we won't be able to perform our commitments before our partners and will have to regard ourselves not as co-owners of ISS but ordinary subconstractors. We may even lose the status of a co-builder of the ISS ", Semenov warned. 


	Regarding financing the federal space programme, of which ISS construction is a part, Semenov noted that "the present financing allotment is beyond criticism". "While implementation of this programme requires 3 billion roubles annually, only half of the sum has been allocated for this year. It is half of what say India, which launches only two spacecraft a year, is spending on space exploration." Semenov fumed.