MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia launched an Iranian satellite into orbit on Tuesday from southern Kazakhstan, just three weeks after President Vladimir Putin and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to work together against the West.
The Russian space agency said that the Khayyam remote sensing satellite, named after the 11th century Persian poet and philosopher Omar Khayyam, was launched by a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and successfully entered orbit.
The official Iranian news agency said that the Iranian Space Agency had received the first telemetry data sent from the satellite. Read more
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Tehran has dismissed allegations that the satellite may be used by Moscow to enhance its intelligence capabilities in Ukraine, saying Iran will have full control over it and operate it “from day one”.
The Washington Post reported last week that US officials are concerned about the emerging space cooperation between Russia and Iran, fearing that the satellite will not only help Russia in Ukraine, but will also provide Iran with “unprecedented capabilities” to monitor potential military targets in Israel and the wider center. the East.
Iran says the satellite is designed for scientific research, including radiological and environmental monitoring, for agricultural purposes.
Russia has sought to deepen its ties with Iran since February 24, when the Kremlin ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, prompting the United States and its allies to impose the toughest sanctions in modern history.
In July, Putin visited Iran on his first international trip outside the former Soviet Union since the start of the Russian military campaign in Ukraine.
While there, Khamenei told Putin that Tehran and Moscow should be vigilant against “Western deception.” Read more
Space has been one area in which the United States and Russia have traditionally maintained strong cooperation and relations despite geopolitical tensions between Moscow and Washington.
Roscosmos and NASA recently signed a deal to fly each other’s astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), but Moscow has made a fuss about withdrawing from the ISS at some point in the future. Read more
Putin recently fired outspoken Dmitry Rogozin as head of Roscosmos, replacing him with a former defense adviser in a change of agency. Read more
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Reporting by Reuters. Editing by Guy Faulconbridge
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