Iran: Satellites Launched into Space as Private Sector Debuts in Space Industry

Kowsar and Hodhod were launched into orbit from the Vostochny spaceport in eastern Russia on Tuesday, using a Russian Soyuz satellite launcher.

Iran’s ambassador to Moscow says Russia will launch two domestically-developed Iranian satellites into space onboard a Soyuz launch vehicle within next few hours.

The development marked the first triumphant attempt by the Islamic Republic’s private sector towards production of satellites and their placement into orbit and was, therefore, deemed as an important and unprecedented step in the country’s space industry.

Kowsar is a remote-sensing satellite with the capability to capture high-resolution imagery for various purposes across the agricultural, natural resources, environmental, and crisis management fields among other areas.

Hodhod has, meanwhile, been described as a small-sized satellite with communication applications, including creation of communication networks and contributions to the Internet of Things [IoT].

The latter could be used towards provision of communication services in remote and inaccessible areas, where land communication networks are not available.

On Monday, Hassan Salarieh, head of Iran’s Space Agency, said the launch of the orbiters was the second development of its type to take place since last March after the country placed its Chamran satellite into orbit on board its Qa’em space launch vehicle (SLV).

Iran has successfully launched domestically-developed Chamran 1 research satellite into orbit onboard a homegrown Qaem-100 space launch vehicle (SLV).

The achievements come despite the Islamic Republic’s suffering from decades of unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and its Western allies.

The developments and numerous other successful efforts on the part of the country have awarded it a place among the world’s top 10 nations that are capable of developing and launching satellites.