On Wednesday, a day following the launch of an Iranian satellite by a Russian rocket, Israeli authorities expressed worry over Russia and Iran’s space collaboration.
An Israeli newspaper cited an Israeli official stating that the satellite would “possibly increase Iran’s ability to fire intercontinental ballistic missiles.”
He cautioned that such Russian-Iranian cooperation could make it more difficult for Israeli “spies” to infiltrate Iran’s border with operations “to halt its nuclear advancement.”
According to Russia’s space agency, Russia launched Iran’s Khayyam satellite on Tuesday using a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan.
Yury Borisov, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, praised the launch as a “landmark event in Russia-Iran bilateral cooperation that prepares the path for the implementation of new” cooperative projects.
According to Iran’s state-run news agency, Iran has received the initial data from its Khayyam satellite. The data contained telemetry readings acquired by Iranian Space Agency ground stations.
