Russian rocket carries record number of satellites into space

ISTANBUL

A rocket has simultaneously launched a record number of Russian satellites into space, the country’s space agency said on Tuesday.

Roscosmos said on Telegram that the rocket carrying 53 satellites was launched by the agency from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, situated in the Amur region in the Russian Far East.

It added that the launch has broken a record for the number of Russian satellites launched into orbit simultaneously.

The satellites carried by the Soyuz-2.1 spacecraft include two made in Iran, namely Kowsar and Hodhod.

The two Iranian satellites are the first to be launched on behalf of the country’s private sector, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Tehran’s Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali had declared on X a day earlier that the two satellites would be launched “in continuation of the development of scientific and technological cooperation between Iran and Russia."