Kliper Project Fails to Get European Funding

[AndyMc]

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8426

"The European Space Agency has received 97% of the funding it requested from its member states for the next five years, following a top-level meeting in Berlin, Germany. The only major programme to be cut from the budget was the development of a Russian space plane called the Kliper."

Looks like it will be left up to the Russians. Good luck to them!

[lmike]

That was just a $59mill* paper study money anyways.  Not much lost.  Maybe now they can drop those wings and wheels and go back to the original concept.  

Also, "Meeting participants also endorsed a resolution to use only European launchers for commercial and space missions rather than rockets from Russia or other countries, even though they might be cheaper. "  Ouch, but not unexpected since governments are expected to subsidize their own rockets (airplanes).  So much for saving taxpayers money.  As I recall they pushed a loan from EADS for Arianspace to build 30 Ariannes-5 in the next 5 years even though there isn't even close that many orders on the backlog.  Although, this seems to contradict the Souyz-2 Kourou deal.

For the Klipper, it doesn't look too good from this, but Russia can actually do it independently money wise with its huge stabilization fund from recent oil sales, and that'd be the best, maybe if Perminov gets Putin's ear.

*edit:59, not 89