MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/. Iran has expressed its intention to cooperate with Russia on the Sfera space program, Iranian Ambassador in Moscow Kazem Jalali said at a conference on Thursday.
He said Iran has officially notified the International Telecommunication Union, SpaceX and some other organizations about the rules concerning satellite operators providing services in the country, but hasn’t received a response.
"Anything beyond that is considered irresponsible and illegal, which not only interferes with Iran’s internal affairs, but also is a clear violation of international rights," the ambassador said at a conference entitled Sfera.
"Sfera is considered an outstanding economic and political opportunity as well as an opportunity in the field of security. We, in the context of our long-term program of cooperation with Russia in the field of space, state our readiness and full intention to work as partners and be present in this cloud project," Jalali said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the Sfera program during a call-in show on June 7, 2018. It seeks to launch satellites for communications and the remote sensing of Earth. According to former Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin, the program will create five satellite constellations for telecom services and five more for remote sensing. The first satellite under the program, the Skif-D, was launched in 2022.