Russia launches two Iranian satellites into orbit

On Tuesday, 5 November, Russia launched two Iranian national satellites "Kousar" and "Hodkhod" into orbit

Here's What We Know

The Kowsar satellite is designed for earth surface sensing and mapping, while the Hodhod satellite performs communication functions.

Although it is officially stated that the satellites will be used to monitor agriculture, the environment and provide communications in remote areas of Iran, they can potentially serve military purposes, including sensing for the Russian side.

The satellites were placed into orbit by a Soyuz 2.1B rocket launched from Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome. They were developed by the private Iranian company Omid Faza, which was the first significant achievement of the Iranian non-state space sector.

By the way, in March 2024, Iran announced that it had successfully launched a domestically produced research satellite Chamran 1 into orbit at an altitude of 550 kilometres. It was launched directly from Iran and was placed into orbit by an Iranian Qaem-100 launch vehicle.

Source: Kazem Jalali