According to the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, two Russian space companies signed a pre-contractual agreement with the Iranian Bonyan Danesh Shargh in order to assist the Islamic Republic of Iran to build its own satellite observation system. The aim of the remote sensing system is to monitor the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans.
The Russian NPK BARL will be in charge of constructing and adapting the system’s ground infrastructure and VNIIEM Corporation, the other Russian partner, is expected to build and launch the satellites. For its part, Bonyan Danesh Shargh will be responsible of operating the system when it is completed.
Leonid Makridenko, CEO of VNIIEM, stated that “The pre-contractual arrangement covers the development of an earth remote-sensing system based on an upgraded version of the Kanopus-V1 (Canopus-B) observation satellite.”
