The European Space Agency (ESA) will push for another 4 billion euro budget next year in the face of a funding shortfall in 2011 from member states struggling with the regional debt crisis, the agency's head said on October 4. Many European countries are making significant cuts in public and defence spending as they try to shore up their national finances.
"The economic crisis is hitting all of Europe and obviously we are not living on a different planet," Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general at ESA, told Reuters on the sidelines of the 62nd International Astronautical Congress in Cape Town.
"We have some shortfalls in our contributions but not to the point where we have a significant decrease to our budget," he said. The shortfall amounted to tens of millions of euros.
Germany and France are the top contributors among the ESA's 18 member states.
Dordain said ESA wants to reduce its internal costs by a quarter within four years and build its coffers as it gears up for an ambitious launch programme starting this month.
Internal costs represent around 20 percent of this year's total budget, he said.
The ESA launches two Galileo satellites into orbit on October 20 then will average one satellite launch a month over the next 12 to 14 months.
Technical problems have delayed recent scheduled launches of ESA's mainstay Ariane rocket although next year ESA will be using its new Vega and Russia's Soyuz launchers.