Russia launches Soyuz rocket with dozens of satellites, including two from Iran By Reuters
(Reuters) – Russia launched a Soyuz rocket early on Tuesday carrying two satellites designed to monitor Earth’s weather and 53 small satellites, including two Iranian ones, Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said.
The Soyuz-2.1 spacecraft, which took off from Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome, was carrying two Ionosfera-M satellites, which will be part of the space program to monitor the Earth’s ionosphere, the agency said.
The ionosphere, where the Earth’s atmosphere meets the atmosphere, extends about 50 to 400 miles (80 to 644 km) above the Earth’s surface, according to information provided on the NASA website.
Each Ionosfera-M satellite weighs 430 kg (948 lb) and its operational orbit is at an altitude of 820 km (510 miles), according to the Interfax news agency.
The program will include four Ionosfera-M satellites in total. The next two missions are scheduled to be launched in 2025, Roscosmos reports.
Among the 53 small satellites are two Iranian satellites, Kowsar, a high-resolution imaging satellite, and Hodhod, a small communications satellite, and the first satellite of the Russian-Chinese student Druzhba ATURK.
Russia in February launched into space an Iranian research satellite to survey Iran’s geopolitical situation in orbit, Iranian state media said at the time.
