Russia launches 52 satellites in one mission, puts 3 Iranian spacecraft into orbit

Russia on Sunday launched a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny spaceport with 52 satellites, Russian television reported.

Roscosmos said the payload includes two Aist-2T satellites and 50 smaller spacecraft. The Aist-2T satellites are designed to photograph the Earth’s surface and produce stereoscopic images to build digital terrain models. They will also support monitoring of fires, floods, and volcanic activity.

Roscosmos said the two Aist-2T satellites, Number 1 and Number 2, will operate together to improve data accuracy. Their planned service life is at least five years.

Some smaller satellites were built by Russian universities. Others are CubeSats under the Universat program and will study climate change and “space weather” in low Earth orbit for the Russian Hydrometeorological Service.

In a separate launch on Sunday, Russia sent three Iranian communications satellites into orbit, Iranian state television reported. A Russian rocket placed the satellites — Paya, Kowsar, and Zafar-2 — into a 500-kilometre orbit from Vostochny.

The report said Paya weighs 150 kilograms and is the heaviest satellite Iran has placed in orbit. Kowsar weighs 35 kilograms. The report did not provide the weight of Zafar-2.

The satellites can capture images with up to three-meter resolution. The stated mission includes management of water resources, agriculture, and environmental monitoring. Their life span is up to five years.

Russia also launched Iran’s Nahid-2 communications satellite in July. Russia and Iran signed a “strategic partnership” treaty in January. Russia condemned Israeli and US strikes on Iran during a 12-day air campaign in June that killed nearly 1,100 people in Iran. Retaliatory missile fire by Iran killed 28 people in Israel.

Iran periodically launches satellite carriers. The United States has said Iran’s launches violate a UN Security Council resolution and urged Tehran not to engage in missile activity linked to nuclear delivery systems. UN sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program expired in 2023.

(With input from agencies)