VVD back tracks on space research spending cuts

Wednesday 04 July 2012

MPs from the ruling right-wing Liberal VVD have found alternative sources of government cash which they say would allow spending on space research to continue at its present levels.

Last week it emerged the government is to slash spending on space research – currently put at around €100m a year.
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But VVD parliamentarian Afke Schaart is to ask economic affairs minister Maxime Verhagen to put unspent cash from an energy subsidy scheme into space research instead.

Verhagen told MPs he did not see any reason to reconsider the cabinet’s position, despite majority support in parliament for change.

Space station

Pressure for a government rethink increased at the weekend after Dutch astronaut André Kuipers arrived back on Earth after a six month stay on the ISS international space station.

'The Netherlands is going to miss out on contracts. Jobs, knowledge and technology will be lost,' Bart Reijen, director of space technology firm Dutch Space told news agency ANP.

The cuts will also affect Dutch support for the European Space Agency, which is based in Noordwijk, and hundreds of jobs are at risk. Some 2,500 people from all over Europe work at ESA.

In April, a group of 125 scientists urged the government and its scientific advisory bodies not to cut spending on experiments in space.

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