Roscosmos suggests reassigning 7.5 bln rubles from Vostochny project budget for coronavirus response - source
MOSCOW. April 20 (Interfax) - Roscosmos has proposed that some of the funds assigned from the budget for building the Angara launch site at the Vostochny Cosmodrome be spent by the government on fighting coronavirus, a source in the aerospace industry told Interfax.
"It has been decided to direct to the Russian government's reserve fund the sum of 7.5 billion rubles earlier allocated for the construction of the Angara launch site. The money will be spent on coping with the economic consequences of the coronavirus epidemic, as well as cleanup efforts," the source said.
The Kommersant newspaper said earlier that the Finance Ministry had finalized acceptance of proposals on modifying 2020 budget expenses in order to support the economy amid the coronavirus epidemic. Kommersant said that the government will enlarge the relevant reserve funds to 646 billion rubles. Roscosmos was one of the agencies that made proposals and agreed to cut the current expenses of the Angara-5 project by 7.5 billion rubles, the newspaper said on Monday.
A source told Interfax that these funds are allocated for the construction of the launch site, rather than the rocket itself.
"The technical parameters of the launch site investment project are being updated, so a decision has been made to redistribute earlier allocations," the source said.
The second stage of the Vostochny Cosmodrome is under construction for launching Angara rockets.