Russia has already received almost $1 billion in advance funding for the launches of UK OneWeb communication satellites aboard the Russian Soyuz carrier rockets and there is no sense in terminating the contract with the UK company now and losing both the money and the status of a reliable space partner, General Director of Russian Space Rocket Center Progress, the Soyuz manufacturer, Dmitry Baranov said on Thursday.

Baranov's comment comes following media reports suggesting that Russia may pull out of the OneWeb satellite constellation project, which is aimed at providing broadband internet access worldwide, amid concerns voiced by Russian security services that the technology could be used to gather intelligence.

"As far as I understand, Russia has already received a sum equal to almost $1 billion in advance funding to manufacture rockets and upper stages. You see, there is no economic sense in doing this [terminating the contract with OneWeb] ... Subsequently, nothing will change for us [if we abandon the contract], we will simply lose money and the status of a reliable partner who launches spacecraft," Baranov told a briefing.
A source in the industry told Sputnik on Tuesday that a group of experts from Russian aerospace agencies had already departed for the Guiana Space Center (CSG), located in French Guiana's commune of Kourou, to make preparations for the upcoming launch of the first batch of OneWeb satellites, slated for February 20.

Under the contract with OneWeb, Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos has pledged to carry out 21 commercial launches of the Soyuz rockets with a total of 672 communication satellites on board.