Russian Rocket Launches Iranian Remote Sensing Satellite into Space

Iranian official media reported today that Russia launched an Iranian research satellite that will survey Iranian terrain from an orbit 500 kilometers away. The remote sensing satellite Pars 1, launched by a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, weighs 134 kilograms and is equipped with three cameras. The space center, which has been operational since 2016, is located in the Amur region of the far East of Russia, not far from the Russian border with China and about 1500 kilometers from the port of Vladivostok. Iranian Minister of Information and Communications Isa Zarepour told state television, "Our current local launch bases do not yet have the ability to place satellites in the correct inclination for orbit around the sun, which is why we use a Russian launch pad." Russia sent the Iranian remote sensing satellite (Khayyam) into orbit in 2022 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, reflecting deeper scientific cooperation between the two countries, which are both under U.S. sanctions.