TEHRAN – Iranian President Ayatollah Seyed Ebrahim Raisi has said that his administration will work to make up for the backwardness in Iran’s aerospace program. 

Speaking at a cabinet session on Wednesday, the Iranian president hailed the placement of the Khayyam satellite in orbit. He described the successful placement of the Khayyam satellite in orbit, message reception, control and data management by Iranian experts as honorable and authoritative, according to the official website of the Iranian presidency.

Referring to the importance of aerospace knowledge as a driver to help the development of the country in various fields, Ayatollah Raisi noted, “The 13th Administration intends to make up for the backwardness in this field and in the future, we will witness the unveiling of new achievements in this field, which will make a great contribution to the environment, mineral exploration, natural hazard management and border monitoring.”

The Iranian Space Agency launched the domestically-built "Khayyam" satellite with a wide range of environmental functions at 10:22 local time on Tuesday.

Named after Persian polymath Omar Khayyam (1048 – 1131), the satellite was put into orbit by a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur space station in Kazakhstan.

In a statement released on Sunday, the Iranian Space Agency said the satellite will be fully controlled by Iranian experts and technicians “from the first day” of its launch. “No other country will have access to such information, and rumors about using satellite images for another country's military purposes are false,” the agency added.

The launch of the satellite marks a watershed moment in Russia-Iran collaboration, according to Roscosmos chief Yury Borisov.

"The successful launch of the satellite for and an order from Iran has become a landmark event in the Russia-Iran bilateral cooperation that paves the way for implementing new and more dimensional projects," he said.