Article author:
Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian rocket successfully launched an Iranian satellite into orbit on Tuesday.
The Soyuz rocket took off as scheduled at 8:52 am Moscow time (0552 GMT) on Tuesday from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch complex in Kazakhstan.
About nine minutes after launch, it put an Iranian satellite called Khayyam into orbit. Named after Omar his Khayyam, a Persian scientist active from the 11th century to his 12th century.
Iran said satellites with high-definition cameras would be used for environmental monitoring and would be under full control.
Tehran said the information it collected would not be accessible to other countries and would only be used for civilian purposes, but said it could be used by Russia to monitor Ukraine. There were allegations.Military action there.
A successful satellite would allow Iran to monitor its archenemy Israel and other countries in the Middle East.
Iranian state television broadcast live footage of the launch, noting that the country's telecommunications minister was present at the launch in Kazakhstan.
State television, citing Iran's private space agency, said the satellite would provide high-definition surveillance images with a resolution of he one meter per pixel. Western civilian satellites provide about half a meter per pixel, while US spy satellites are believed to be even sharper.
Iran has both a civilian and military space program, and the United States fears it could be used to advance its ballistic missile program. However, Iran has experienced a series of accidents and failed satellite launches in recent years.
