Kazem Jalali, Iran’s ambassador to Russia, said on Monday that Russia will launch two Iranian satellites into orbit on Tuesday, November 5, which is Election Day in the United States.
“In continuation of the development of Iran-Russia scientific and technological cooperation, two Iranian satellites, Kowsar and Hodhod, will be launched to a 500 kilometer orbit of earth on Tuesday, Nov. 5, by a Soyuz launch vehicle,” Jalali said.
“There is hope that with the launch of these two satellites, a firm and decisive first step will be taken towards the entry of the private sector of the Islamic Republic of Iran into the space sphere,” he said.
The Soyuz series of rocket launch vehicles is the longest continuously operational spaceflight program in the world.
Russia has launched Iranian satellites in the past, but according to Jalali, Tuesday’s launch will be the first time satellites built by private-sector Iranian corporations will be placed into orbit by Russian rockets.
Jalali said the two satellites were designed by young Iranian scientists working for Omid Faza, a nominally private company that nevertheless enjoys “support” from the Iranian science ministry, the Iranian Space Agency (ISA), and the Iranian embassy in Moscow.
Kowsar is a high-resolution imaging satellite, weighing in at a bit less than 70 pounds, with a projected orbital lifespan of more than three years. It was reportedly designed to support agriculture and land surveying.
Hodhod is a communications satellite, much smaller than Kowsar, with an estimated orbital lifespan of four years. It was also ostensibly designed for agriculture and land surveying, plus transportation and environmental protection.
Iran insists every aspect of its space program is peaceful and complies with U.N. Security Council resolutions, an assertion viewed with considerable skepticism by Western intelligence agencies, who note that everything Iran boosts into orbit could have military applications, including ballistic missile guidance.
Russia used a Soyuz rocket in February to launch an Iranian research satellite called Pars 1. Much like Kowsar, Iran claimed Pars 1 was designed to perform topographical scans of Iran’s territory.
