Iran Announces Launch of Two Satellites, Kowsar and Hodhod, by Russian Rocket

Iran announced that its two satellites named 'Kowsar' and 'Hodhod' were launched into space by a Russian rocket. Kazem Jalali, Iran's ambassador to Moscow, announced early Tuesday, November 15, that these satellites were launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia using the Soyuz 2.1b rocket. The Iranian ambassador in Moscow added on social media platform X that these two satellites were launched towards an orbit 500 kilometers above the Earth and 'will be injected into orbit within hours.' According to him, the purpose of these two satellites will be 'Earth remote sensing' and 'Internet of Things applications in narrowband.' Reports indicate that the Kowsar satellite weighs 30 kilograms and the Hodhod satellite weighs four kilograms, with orbital lifetimes of three and four years, respectively. Iranian officials referred to these two satellites as 'the first satellites made by the private sector.' According to Iranian media, these satellites were produced by the knowledge-based company Omid Space; the management of this company is led by Hossein Shahabi Farahani, who also managed the 'National Satellite Omid' project. The Omid satellite was the first satellite that the Iranian government announced launching into space in 2008. In recent years, officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran have spoken about launching satellites with Iranian rockets; launches that Western officials believe were a cover for missile tests. However, in August 2022, Iran announced that it had sent the 'Khayyam' satellite into space using a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Iran claims that the purpose of its satellite launches is scientific-research. Military cooperation between Tehran and Russia has become much closer following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, leading to Western sanctions against Tehran due to the supply of drones and missiles to Russia.