Russia is scheduled to launch an Iranian satellite Khayyam into orbit on Tuesday. The satellite is scheduled to take off from the Moscow-operated Baikonur cosmodrome.

According to Russian space agency Roscosmos, the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with Fregat upper-stage will carry Iran’s Khayyam remote sensing satellite into orbit. Apart from the Iranian satellite, the Soyuz-2.1b will also carry 16 small spacecraft designed by the leading Russian universities, commercial companies, and non-commercial scientific and technological organisations.

According to media reports, Russia plans to use this as a spy satellite to gather intelligence on Ukrainian troop movements. However, the Iranian Space Agency refuted this news and said that the Islamic republic would control the Khayyam satellite from day one. No third country can access the information sent by satellite due to its encrypted algorithm.

Khayyam, named after 11th-century Persian polymath Omar Khayyam, is a remote sensing satellite. Per the Iranian Space Agency, the purpose of the Khayyam satellite is to monitor the country’s borders, improve agricultural productivity and assess water resources and natural disasters.

Iran’s space program is for civilian and defence purposes only. It does not breach the 2015 nuclear deal or any other international agreement. Iran successfully put its first military satellite into orbit in 2020, inviting a sharp rebuke from the United States.

Iran is currently negotiating on Iran nuclear deal (formally Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna, Austria.