Japan's space agency has announced it will sell the rights to use live broadcasts and video footage from the International Space Station.
The National Space Development Agency of Japan has begun accepting applications from private companies to use the video images or live broadcasts for commercial purposes, such as multimedia projects and advertising.
The agency will provide companies with rights to 30 minutes of videotape taken by a high-precision camera in space and a maximum 10-minute live television broadcast, agency officials said.
The move is in line with similar ones in the United States and European countries, which are also participating in the ISS project, the officials said.
The agency will also offer footage of the Earth taken from the station and of the lives of astronauts living there, which the agency will obtain from Russia.
The agency intends to obtain 1,000 minutes of video footage per year under contract with Russia. Russian astronauts will start shooting the video in July.
The agency has also started promoting similar commercial use of the Japanese research module "Kibo" (Hope), to be built within the ISS.
The lab will be launched between 2004 and 2005 for attachment to the ISS, where the first full-time residents of the orbiting station arrived in November.
ISS commander William Shepherd, 51, a former U.S. Navy pilot, Soyuz commander Yuri Gidzenko, 38, and flight engineer Sergei Krikalev, 42, are staying for over three months on the Russian-built Zvezda (Star) service module. to continue building the ISS, which is slated for completion in 2006.