Iran, Russia collaborate on joint research spacecraft 

Top universities from Iran and Russia are working on a collaborative project to manufacture a research spacecraft, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency. 

The president of the University of Tehran, Mohammad Moqimi, told the outlet that the academic institution recently signed an agreement with the Moscow State University to develop a research spacecraft within two years.

Top universities from Iran and Russia (University of Tehran and Moscow State University) have embarked on a joint project to manufacture a research spacecraft within 2 years. pic.twitter.com/rynGcJGWQu

— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) September 10, 2023

While work has already begun on the project, a secretariat has also been established at the University of Tehran’s scientific and research department to oversee the project, he added.

Moqimi also noted that Iran’s Vice President Mohammad Mokhber assigned the Plan and Budget Organisation of Iran to partially finance the joint project.

News of the initiative was first announced in May, following an agreement signed during a visit by an Iranian academic delegation to Moscow.

In recent years the two countries have been strengthening bilateral ties across several fields, including trade, military and the space sector.

In August 2022, Russia successfully launched an Iranian satellite, the remote-sensing Khayyam into space from a base in Kazakhstan on board a Russian rocket.  The Khayyam, named after 11th-century Persian poet and polymath Omar Khayyam, is reportedly for non-military purposes.

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