{"id":10539,"date":"2022-08-29T16:50:57","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T13:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/?p=10539"},"modified":"2022-08-30T16:47:52","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T13:47:52","slug":"implications-of-growing-iran-russia-space-cooperation%ef%bf%bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/monitoring-and-translation\/reports\/implications-of-growing-iran-russia-space-cooperation%ef%bf%bc\/","title":{"rendered":"Implications of Growing Iran-Russia Space Cooperation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Russia recently launched<\/a> an Iranian satellite into orbit from its  leased spaceport facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Iran  confirmed that the satellite named Khayyam  will be used for civilian purposes such as for agricultural programs and environmental monitoring.  However,  US officials  expressed their concerns over the satellite being used for military purposes. Some reports<\/a>  indicate that the Russian space agency,  Roscosmos,  informed Iran that Russia  will maintain control over the satellite for several months or longer to assist the war effort in Ukraine  but  Tehran has rejected this claim.   Iran-Russia  space cooperation is one of the first results of the partnership agreements that were signed after the recent meeting<\/a> between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and reflects the growing strategic partnership between both countries.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Khayyam is a low earth orbit (LEO), remote-sensing satellite and it was launched using the Russian Soyuz-2.1b orbital launch vehicle. Earlier in March, the IRGC launched<\/a> the   Noor-2 satellite which is largely used for imaging missions and projects. The recently launched Khayyam  satellite has a higher resolution than the Noor-2 satellite.  The Iranian Space Agency revealed that the images are expected to come in a resolution of 1 meter and they will  be used to  boost Iran\u2019s management and planning capacities  including border monitoring. According to reports<\/a>, Iran is aiming  to develop its remote-sensing satellite capabilities to an image resolution of 5 meters to 10 meters.  Khayyam was built and developed by Russia but  commissioned by Iran. The satellite will orbit at an altitude of  500 kilometers  and  weighs nearly 600 kilograms. As per the Iranian government,  Tehran plans to commission three more versions of Khayyam.  The Iranian government\u2019s spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi recently said<\/a> that, \u201cThe construction of three other Khayyam satellites with the participation of Iranian scientists is on the government\u2019s agenda.\u201d Recently the Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Amir Ali Hajizadeh praised<\/a> Iran\u2019s drone and missile capabilities, affirming that the country\u2019s  aerospace and military programs are interlinked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The satellite\u2019s launch comes amid increased tensions between Iran and the United States and ambiguity over  the nature of the proposal extended by the EU to revive the nuclear deal, especially as Iran has rejected all demands concerning its ballistic missile program. The United States  expressed its concerns<\/a> over the recent launch  as the satellite launch systems incorporate technologies that are interchangeable with ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.   Western powers have cautioned that Iran\u2019s space program  could also be a cover for developing advanced fuel and rocket systems and possibly larger missiles.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The growing space cooperation between Iran and Russia points toward three key developments. Firstly, Iran\u2019s space program is likely to be  critical  for its national security and strategic interests in the coming years. As Iran\u2019s space capabilities continue to grow, they will  benefit its ballistic missile program,  especially as  the Iranian Aerospace Industries Organization manufactures rockets and launch vehicles to space not only for research but also for military purposes as well.  Secondly, Iran and Russia view  the growing space partnership as a new front to enhance their  strategic cooperation. This partnership will enable both countries to explore and expand their aerospace and defense projects.  For example, US intelligence  sources have indicated  that Russia recently sent<\/a> its personnel for  training on how to operate Iranian military drones before their deployment in the Ukrainian war theater.  US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan recently said that  Russian military officials visited a drone base in Iran\u2019s city of Kashan possibly for training and operational purposes. Thirdly, as Russia faces isolation,  it has deepened its space cooperation with countries in the Middle East and Africa and its satellite launching capacity has been a key aspect of  Moscow\u2019s attempts to diversify its cooperation  in order to  project its numerous alliances and partnerships.   Roscosmos  is now looking to expand its market in the Middle East, especially amid concerns related to future cooperation with the EU and the United States. Russia has threatened<\/a> to end its cooperation with the West in regard to  the International Space Station if the sanctions are not lifted.  Roscosmos CEO Yury Borisov recently said<\/a> that the launch of the Khayyam  satellite will enable  Moscow to \u201cexpand the cooperation in manufacturing space equipment and providing services for countries of the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia recently launched an Iranian satellite into orbit from its  leased spaceport facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Iran  confirmed that the satellite named Khayyam  will be used for civilian purposes such as for agricultural programs and environmental monitoring.  However,  US officials  expressed their concerns over the satellite being used for military purposes. Some reports  indicate that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5747,6925],"class_list":["post-10539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports","tag-iran-russia","tag-iran-russia-space-cooperation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10539"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10542,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10539\/revisions\/10542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}