MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos has concluded the first forward contract with the private space company Sputnix on buying Earth remote sensing satellite data, Roscosmos said on Saturday.

"In 2024, up to 1.4 billion rubles [around $14.285 million] were allocated in budget funds to conclude forward contracts with private companies on buying out Earth’s remote sensing data obtained from their satellites and created under the federal project ‘Developing the Advanced Space Systems and Services High-Tech Sector.’ The first contract on buying out data has been concluded with the Sputnix Group of Companies," Roscosmos said in a statement.

The Sputnix Group confirmed to TASS that the contract had been signed.

"Under the contract, the data already loaded into the database were bought out. We hope that next year we will be able to sign a forward contract as part of implementing the roadmap for the ‘Advanced Space Systems and Services’ project," the company said, emphasizing that cooperation with Roscosmos remained a priority for Sputnix.

Deputy Director of the Roscosmos Department of Automated Space Complexes, Navigation Systems and Earth’s Remote Sensing Valery Zaichko announced plans in 2023 to purchase data from private companies. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law in April 2024 vesting an exclusive right in Roscosmos to sell remote sensing data to customers, including government agencies.

In the summer of this year, Roscosmos Head Yury Borisov said that the federal space agency was interested in concluding forward contracts with some private companies, including Sitronics Space (the former name of Sputnix). Borisov announced in early December that the contract was expected to be signed by the end of the year.