TABNAK, Nov, 05 : A Russian rocket carrying a payload of satellites into orbit – including two from Iran – blasted off successfully early Tuesday.
The Soyuz-2.1 spacecraft lifted off as scheduled from the Vostochny Cosmodrome launchpad in far eastern Russia and put its payload into a designated orbit nine minutes after the launch on Tuesday.
Weighing 30kg, Kowsar has an estimated orbital lifespan of over three years and can transmit color imaging with a range of 15km and at the rate of 6 frames per second. The satellite images are suitable for use in agriculture, land surveying, and cadaster.
Hodhod weighs 4kg and has an orbital height of 500 km with about four years of lifespan. The data from this satellite is also useful for agriculture, mapping, transport, and the environment.
The great advantage of the Hodhod satellite is that its mission is to create a dedicated platform for providing narrowband Internet of Things (IoT) services, with international coverage and in remote areas, including forests, mountains.
The Iranian satellites are the first launched on behalf of the country’s private sector, with the Kowsar manufactured by the Omidfaza Company, which began designing the satellite in 2019.
In 2022, a Russian rocket launched an Iranian earth observation satellite called Khayyam, which was built in Russia at Tehran’s request. Russia put another Iranian satellite named Pars-1 into orbit in February.
The Pars-1 is a research satellite that will scan Iran’s topography from orbit, Iran’s state media reported at the time.
