Israel and Russian Federation have signed an agreement on creation of center for development of small satellites, Newsru.co.il reports with reference to “Kol Israel” radio station.

In accordance with the agreement, the center will be created on the basis of one of the Tomsk’s universities and two Israeli companies of the corresponding profile. The developed satellites are intended for civil use.

The parties intend to launch the first developed satellite this year.

Recently the general designer of Gazprom Space Systems Nikolay Sevastyanov has noted that Russia is yielding in the area of space geoinformational technologies development. The head of Israeli Space Agency, Itshak Ben-Israel, who has visited Moscow in April, said that Israel is the world leader in development of light surveillance satellites and other space technologies and it has a lot to offer Russia. He also noted that the agreement signed between Roscosmos and Israeli Space Agency will aid the fast development of cooperation between the countries.

We remind you that the astronauts Alexey Leonov and Mikhail Kornienko have arrived in Israel and taken part in Limud festival.