On this picture launched by Roscosmos, a Soyuz rocket lifts off from a launch website in Vostochny, in far japanese Russia, to launch satellites, together with two constructed by Iran, into orbit on Tuesday (Nov. 5, 2024). | Photograph credit score: AP
A Russian rocket efficiently lifted off on Tuesday (Nov 5, 2024) to place a pair of Iranian satellites into orbit, a launch that mirrored rising cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.
The Soyuz rocket lifted off as scheduled from the Vostochny launch pad in far japanese Russia and positioned its payload into a chosen orbit 9 minutes after launch. It carried two Russian Ionosphere-M Earth statement satellites and a number of other dozen smaller satellites, together with the 2 Iranian ones.
Iran’s two satellites, referred to as Kowsar and Hodhod, had been the primary launched on behalf of the nation’s non-public sector. In 2022, a Russian rocket launched an Iranian Earth statement satellite tv for pc referred to as Khayyam that was inbuilt Russia on Tehran’s orders, and in February Russia put one other Iranian satellite tv for pc referred to as Pars-1 into orbit.
Tuesday’s (November 5, 2024) launch comes at a time when Russia and Iran have expanded their ties in numerous spheres. Ukraine and the West have accused Tehran of offering Moscow with a whole lot of explosive drones to be used on the battlefield in Ukraine and serving to to launch their manufacturing in Russia. Iranian drone deliveries, which Moscow and Tehran have denied, have enabled a continuing barrage of long-range drone assaults towards Ukraine’s infrastructure.
Moscow and Tehran plan to additional strengthen their ties with a “complete strategic partnership” to be signed throughout Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s deliberate go to to Russia. The date of that go to has not but been set, however the Kremlin stated it may occur quickly.
Tuesday’s (Nov. 5, 2024) profitable launch of Iranian satellites atop a Russian rocket follows a sequence of failed launches suffered by Iran’s civilian area program in recent times. There have been 5 failed launches in a row of the Simorgh programme, a satellite-carrying rocket.
A hearth on the Imam Khomeini spaceport in February 2019 killed three researchers, authorities stated on the time. A rocket explosion on the launch pad later that yr caught the eye of then-President Donald Trump, who mocked Iran with a tweet exhibiting what gave the impression to be a U.S. surveillance {photograph} of the positioning.
On the identical time, an impartial Iranian area program run by the nation’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has seen profitable launches from a navy base exterior Shahroud, about 350 kilometers (215 miles) east of the capital, Tehran. Nevertheless, satellite tv for pc pictures analyzed by The Related Press present that Israel possible bombed the positioning throughout its retaliatory strike towards Iran on October 26.
The U.S. intelligence group’s international menace evaluation this yr stated Iran’s improvement of satellite tv for pc launch automobiles would “shorten the timeline” for Iran to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile as a result of it makes use of comparable know-how.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles can be utilized to ship nuclear weapons. Iran is now producing uranium near weapons-grade ranges after the collapse of its nuclear take care of world powers. Tehran has sufficient enriched uranium for “a number of” nuclear weapons if it decides to supply them, the top of the Worldwide Atomic Power Company has warned.
Iran has all the time denied searching for nuclear weapons and says its area program, like its nuclear actions, is for purely civilian functions. Nevertheless, US intelligence companies and the IAEA say Iran had an organized navy nuclear program till 2003.
Printed – Nov 05, 2024 07:40 am IST
