Iran, Russia Agree to Continue Aerospace Coop.

Iran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology Isa Zarepour said on Saturday that Iran and Russia had very good agreements to continue aerospace cooperation. Zarepour said that Iran was able to define joint work alongside the world's number one or two space powers and had very good agreements with the Russian Space Agency to continue aerospace cooperation. Stating that active diplomacy of the 13th government in Iran led to the conversion of the contract for the purchase of satellites into contracts for transferring technology, the ICT minister noted that according to the agreements, Iran and Russia will jointly build three more versions of the Khayyam satellite.

With follow-ups, Iran and Russia were able to launch the satellite successfully with the Soyuz launcher into orbit in the past days, he added. He underscored that the agreement with Russia has been done and its memorandum of understanding has been inked in the past months and has been welcomed by the Russian side.

Iranian “Khayyam” satellite has been launched into orbit from the Moscow-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, marking what Iran called the beginning of "strategic" aerospace cooperation between Tehran and Moscow. Equipped with a Fregat upper stage, the Khayyam satellite was sent into orbit on Tuesday by Soyuz-2.1b rocket, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in neighboring Kazakhstan. First telemetry data from the Khayyam satellite are reportedly received at the Iranian Space Agency's (ISA) Mahdasht space base. According to the reports, the satellite will be placed in an orbit of 500 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. It will send high-resolution images four times a day. Imagery from Khayyam will be used to monitor Iran’s borders and improve the country’s capabilities in management and planning in the fields of agriculture, natural resources, environment, mining, and natural disasters.

 Iran intends to build three more versions of the Khayyam satellite, Iranian Government Spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi said on Thursday. Saying that the stabilization of the Khayyam satellite was done successfully, Bahadori Jahromi wrote in a tweet that Iranian knowledge-based companies will use imagery and data received by the Khayyam in various spheres. The building of three more versions of the Khayyam satellite with the participation of Iranian scientists is on the agenda of the administration, he added. - Mehr