Russia launches Iran’s research satellite ‘Pars 1’ into space 

Russia on Thursday launched into space Pars 1, an Iranian imaging satellite, which has the capability of sending high-resolution images of surface locations from its orbit 500 km above Earth, Russian state media reported.

The rocket also carried a Russian weather satellite and 17 Russian small satellites. TASS news agency, citing a broadcast by Russian Space Agency Roscosmos stated that a 134 kg-Soyuz carrier rocket blasted off from the Vostochny spaceport at 8:43 am Moscow time.

The Fregate booster carrying the Meteor-M No. 2-4 weather satellite and 18 smaller satellites separated from the third state of the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle, according to a Roscosmos broadcast.