Da, Double The Budget, Spasiba…

Itar-Tass, the Russian News Agency, is reporting the country’s Federal Space Agency has requested their budget be doubled to finance GLONASS. The request is for consideration for the 2009 to 2011 federal budget. Meetings are now being held to consider this request. In order to fully cover Russia territory, 18 healthy satellites will be required. The GLONASS plan calls for 24 such craft. There are currently 16 satellites on orbit and additional launches are scheduled for this year. The First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Sergei Ivanov, has been quoted as saying “We shall surely [have] 24 satellites in a year and a half.” This year, the budget for GLONASS is 10.7 billion rubles (approximately 450M/USD).