Russia launched an Iranian remote-sensing satellite into orbit, Roscosmos reported in Telegram.
"Iran's Khayyam remote-sensing satellite was successfully launched into its target orbit using a Russian Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle and a Fregat upper stage from the Baikonur Cosmodrome," the statement read.
Soyuz with the Iranian satellite and 16 Russian small satellites was launched from Baikonur at 08:52 Moscow time.
A few minutes later, the rocket entered a near-Earth orbit, and then the Fregat delivered the devices to their target orbits.
Together with the Iranian satellite, the CubeSX-HSE-2, Monitor-1, UTMN, CYCLOPS, Siren, KAI-1, Kuzbass-300, Skoltech-B1, Skoltech-B2, Polytech Universe-1, Polytech Universe-2, Vizard, Geoscan-Edelweiss, MIET-AIS, ISOI and ReshUCube satellites were located under the payload fairing.
These satellites were created by the leading Russian universities, companies and non-profit organizations.
Roscosmos CEO Yuri Borisov called the launch an important milestone in Russian-Iranian cooperation. According to him the launch of remote-sensing satellite paves the way for implementation of more large-scale projects.
"Russia, as before, is open for cooperation in space research with all interested countries and partners. I am convinced that the topic of space should remain outside the political conjuncture and serve the good of all mankind and world science," Roscosmos quoted Borisov as saying.
Iranian Minister of Information and Communications Technology Eisa Zarepour, in turn, thanked everyone involved in the launch and called the day of the launch of the new satellite "historic in the relationship between the two countries."
"Today was a turning point for the beginning of new cooperation in space between our two countries," Roscosmos quoted Zarepour as saying.
The small satellites are designed for scientific and technological research, including testing technologies for inter-satellite communications, measuring the level of electromagnetic radiation, remote sensing of the Earth and environmental monitoring.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: PxHere/CC0
Based on materials from RIA Novosti