The launch took place earlier today from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where heavy snowfall accompanied the liftoff of the Russian heavy-lift vehicle.

The satellite, internationally identified as Iran DBS and owned by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, aims to consolidate the country’s operational presence in geostationary orbit after years of technical development.

Images from the launch confirmed the use of the Proton-M heavy rocket supplied by Russia, reflecting technical requirements beyond the capability of Iran’s current light- and medium-class domestic launchers.

The mission was conducted as a shared launch alongside a Russian meteorological satellite to reduce costs and leverage the vehicle’s established reliability.

The Proton system, widely regarded in the global space sector as a "workhorse," is designed to deliver heavy payloads to geostationary transfer orbit using multiple propulsion stages and the Briz-M upper-stage orbital transfer block. This capability enables precise injection into geostationary transfer orbit, reducing the probability of orbital insertion failure during Iran’s first GEO-class communications deployment.

Strategically, reliance on Proton reflects a "smart tactical strategy" to maintain orbital presence while domestic heavy-lift systems remain under development.

Iran continues research on indigenous launchers and orbital transfer stages intended to eventually achieve independent GEO access without foreign launch services. This approach allows the country to preserve "ownership and operational rights" in orbit while avoiding regulatory expiration deadlines imposed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Under ITU rules, failure to place a functioning satellite within assigned timeframes can result in forfeiture of orbital positions.

Jaam-e-Jam 1 is expected to occupy the 34-degree-east orbital slot within roughly three weeks, preserving national usage rights in that location.

Operationally, officials say the satellite is not intended for direct household dish reception. Instead, it will provide "interactive audio and video signal transmission" for professional ground stations, effectively serving as a secure high-capacity broadcast backhaul network.

This system is designed to transmit television feeds from Tehran to terrestrial transmitters nationwide with improved reliability and quality. The move is also intended to reduce dependence on leased foreign satellite capacity from operators such as Intelsat and Eutelsat.

Technically, the mission now enters its post-launch phase. The satellite has been released into geostationary transfer orbit and must perform a sequence of propulsion burns, including apogee-kick maneuvers, to circularize its orbit at GEO altitude. During an approximately 20-day drift and orbit-raising period, ground teams will conduct early orbit operations tests covering solar-array deployment, battery health, and communications payload calibration.

Final service activation will depend on successful completion of these orbital maneuvers and stable positioning at the assigned GEO slot.

The mission coincided with the deployment of the Elektro-L No.5 weather satellite operated by Roscosmos, a GEO platform built by NPO Lavochkin to provide multispectral Earth observation, space-weather monitoring, and communications relay capabilities, including participation in the COSPAS-SARSAT network.

The launch also underscored the aging status of the Proton rocket—first flown under the Soviet Union in 1965 and gradually being replaced by Angara systems—while maintaining geostationary orbital coverage, including communications links with stations such as those near Moscow.