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Nature 438, 896 (15 December 2005) | doi:10.1038/438896b; Published online 14 December 2005

Budget boost gets Russia back in the space game

Tony Reichhardt

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Oil revenues help to relaunch Soviet missions.

Russia's long-suffering space scientists had reason to celebrate last week as a generous funding increase was approved for the national space agency, giving hope to missions that have long been on hold.The State Duma — parliament's lower house — approved a budget of 23 billion roubles (US$800 million) for Roscosmos in 2006, nearly one-third more than the agency received this year.