Iran launches a Russian “domestically developed” imaging satellite

Amid growing tensions with the West, Russia has launched a research satellite built in Iran into orbit.

According to the official IRNA news agency, a Russian Soyuz rocket launched the Pars 1 remote sensing and imaging satellite on Thursday from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The satellite will study Iran’s topography from an orbit of 310 miles (500 km).

Issa Zarepour, Iran’s Minister of Telecommunications, declared Pars-I to be “fully domestically developed.”

Almost a week after its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a research satellite, Iran announced in January that it had simultaneously launched three satellites into orbit using its own rocket.

The United States and other Western countries have warned Iran against these launches on multiple occasions, citing the possibility of using the same technology for ballistic missiles, which might carry a nuclear weapon.

Iran has responded by claiming that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons and that its satellite and rocket launches are solely for military or commercial purposes. Iran has been under sanctions from the United States since the latter withdrew from a historic nuclear deal in 2018, which gave Tehran relief in exchange for limitations on its nuclear activities.

Russia launched Iran’s remote-sensing Khayyam satellite into orbit from Kazakhstan in August 2022, showing the two countries’ increased scientific collaboration but also sparking concern that Moscow would use the satellite to increase the surveillance of military targets in its war with Ukraine.

Moscow is trying to fortify its ties with other nations shunned by the West, like as Iran, which is charged with supplying Moscow with armed drones for its incursion into Ukraine.

Due to Iran’s support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US said this month that fresh sanctions would be placed on the country soon.