Beirut: Iran has launched three domestically built satellites into space aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. The satellites, named Zafar-2, Paya, and Kowsar-1.5, were launched at 4:48 p.m. Tehran time on Sunday from Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome using a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket.

According to Islamic Republic News Agency, Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos stated that the Soyuz rocket had lifted off normally and would deploy the satellites into their designated orbit as planned. Vahid Yazdanian, Iran's deputy communications minister and head of the Iranian Space Research Institute, mentioned that the three Earth observation satellites were built by the private sector.

Yazdanian explained that the satellites are capable of transmitting imaging data with resolutions ranging from 15 meters to less than five meters. He highlighted that the data could be used for a wide range of civilian applications inside the country, including agriculture, water resource management, and environmental monitoring.

He further noted that the new satellites will operate at an altitude of about 500 kilometers above Earth, in what is known as low Earth orbit (LEO).