Belt-tightening measures would be felt in Russia's space program as the country cuts spending by more than a third over the next decade. That would mean cancelling its plan to come up with a super-heavy launch rocket as well as losing its space race with the United States.

As a result, there would be a 35 percent cut in planned spending by 850 billion roubles, bringing down the allocation for the Roscosmos federal space agency to 2 trillion roubles or $37.76 billion.

Like Us on Facebook

The culprit behind the cuts is the economic crisis that Russia is grappling with as it teeters toward recession caused by the falling prices of oil in the international market and the western sanctions imposed after Russia invaded and annexed parts of Ukraine, reports Reuters.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev estimates the western sanctions cost the country $27 billion or 1.5 percent of its gross domestic product. Meanwhile, oil prices also plummeted almost by half, although Medvedev told members of the Russian Parliament's Lower House that the bigger blame is on the sanctions, reports IBT-US.

 In March, the Russian central bank estimated that the country's economy would likely contract by 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2015, but the latest figures showed it was bigger.

Medvedev said, "The unprecedented political and economic external pressure is the price for our position," quotes Bloomberg.

But even prior to the budget cuts, some projects such as the construction of a new Voctochny Cosmodrome as replacement for the ageing Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan has been plagued with problems.

Citing Russian security service officers, the TASS news agency reports that up to 50 million roubles was pocketed by corrupt officials, causing 20 constructions workers to go on a hunger strike and stop work since they have not been paid their salaries for months.

In his yearly TV phone-in broadcast last week, some of the construction workers have brought their problems to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the unpaid salary problem remains.

Rather than build a new one, the plan is for Russia to modify a heavy launch rocket already under development. This change is expected to save the country more than $1 billion.

TagsRussia, space program, Western sanctions