Roscosmos launched an Iranian satellite - it could be used in the war with Ukraine

The Russian Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket, which launched on August 9 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, launched the Khayyam Iranian Earth remote sensing satellite into orbit. 16 small Russian satellites were delivered into orbit as a passing load.

Khayyam should significantly expand Iran's ability to conduct intelligence in the Middle East. However, according to The Washington Post interlocutors from Western law enforcement agencies, the first few months the satellite will be used by Russia to support its troops in Ukraine. The Iranian space agency called this information untrue.

Russia and Iran agreed on the production and launch of Khayyam four years ago. This is a satellite for remote sensing of the Earth of the Russian series "Kanopus-V".

In 2020, Iran launched its first military satellite, Nur-1, from its own Semnan launch site in the Deshte-Kevir desert. Sources in the Western intelligence community were skeptical about its technical capabilities.

The new head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said on Tuesday that the successful launch of the Iranian spacecraft opens "the path to the implementation of new and even larger projects" involving the two countries.

After the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine, observers record the rapprochement between Russia and Iran. Tehran became one of the few foreign capitals that Vladimir Putin visited after the start of the war. Western publications reported that Russia plans to acquire Iranian drones to compensate for the lack of its own drones on the battlefield in Ukraine. The head of the CIA also spoke about this publicly. This has not been officially confirmed in Moscow and Tehran. On the other hand, an agreement was officially reported on the supply of aircraft parts from Iran, maintenance and repair of Russian aircraft by Iranian companies.

Sources: Roscosmos , The Washington Post , IRNA , Mehr , Bloomberg