Iran launches three domestically built satellites aboard Russian Soyuz rocket

The satellites, named Zafar-2, Paya, and Kowsar-1.5, were launched at 4:48 p.m. Tehran time on Sunday from Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome using a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket.

Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos said minutes after the launch that the Soyuz rocket had lifted off normally and would deploy the satellites into their designated orbit as planned.

Vahid Yazdanian, Iran’s deputy communications minister and head of the Iranian Space Research Institute, said the three Earth observation satellites were built by the private sector.

He said the satellites are capable of transmitting imaging data with resolutions ranging from 15 meters to less than five meters, adding that the data could be used for a wide range of civilian applications inside the country.

Yazdanian cited agriculture, water resource management, and environmental monitoring among the main uses of the imagery.

He added that the new satellites will operate at an altitude of about 500 kilometers above Earth, in what is known as low Earth orbit (LEO)./irna