Tehran, IRNA – The cooperation between Russia and Iran in launching Khayyam satellite into orbit is a useful partnership and is considered as the beginning of broader collaborations between the two countries, an Iranian official believes.
Mohammad-Javad Larijani, the director of the IPM Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences, told IRNA on Sunday that Russia is one of the most advanced states in aerospace industry, as well as physics, mathematics, nanotechnology, astronomy, and quantum computing.
Thus, the launch of Khayyam satellite is a very significant cooperation, which can pave more coordination in the future and the Iranian scientists can benefit from the opportunity, the director noted.
Referring to some criticisms regarding the issue that the satellite was sent into space by a Russian Soyuz rocket which blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Larijani argued that those, who criticize, do not know that launching satellite into space and tracking it from a station on the earth is not as simple as travelling by airplane.
There are numerous technical issues in the launching phase and after that, he said, adding that coordination and collaboration among states in order to pave the way for launching a satellite is very common, so even advanced states utilize other countries’ satellite carriers.
Iran’s collaboration with Russia in the technology of satellite carriers, manufacturing satellites, tracking stations, on-earth tracking and data analysis would be of great usage, he mentioned, noting that the Islamic Republic enjoys good capabilities and can attain more in this respect, but critics are not aware of the facts.
Aerospace technology has turned into an important science, which plays a key role in human life. The technology has a 424 billion dollar share in international economy. It has grown 70 percent in comparison to a decade ago. Manufacturing and launching satellites are main parts of the economy.
Iran initiated research activities in this field in 1990s and then started manufacturing different satellites. The efforts led to the launching Khayyam satellite in recent days.
Named after the 11th century Persian polymath, Khayyam satellite can be used in improving productivity in agriculture, accurate monitoring of Iran’s water resources, managing natural disasters, monitoring changes in the use of land, unauthorized constructions, and deforestation among other capabilities.
The command control of Khayyam satellite is located in Iran under the supervision of the Iranian Space Agency and the country’s engineers and researchers would monitor and utilize the satellite.
The information of the satellite will be received by the use of encrypted algorithms, which were developed by Iranian researchers.
Source: Islamic Republic News Agency – IRNA
