Context :

Aims : The earliest stages of intermediate- and high-mass star formation remain poorly understood .
To gain deeper insights , we study a previously discovered protostellar source that is deeply embedded and drives an energetic molecular outflow .

Methods : The source , UYSO 1 , located close to IRAS 07029–1215 at a distance of about 1 kpc , was observed in the ( sub ) millimeter and centimeter wavelength ranges , as well as at near- , mid- , and far-infrared wavelengths .

Results : The multi-wavelength observations resulted in the detection of a double intermediate-mass protostar at the location of UYSO 1 .
In addition to the associated molecular outflow , with a projected size of 0.25 pc , two intersecting near-infrared jets with projected sizes of 0.4 pc and 0.2 pc were found .
However , no infrared counterparts to the driving sources could be detected in sensitive near- to far-infrared observations ( including Spitzer ) .
In interferometric millimeter observations , UYSO 1 was resolved into two continuum sources with high column densities ( > 10 ^ { 24 } cm ^ { -2 } ) and gas masses of 3.5 M _ { \odot } and 1.2 M _ { \odot } , with a linear separation of 4200 AU .
We report the discovery of a H _ { 2 } O maser towards one of the two sources .
Within an appropriate multi-wavelength coverage , the total luminosity is roughly estimated to be \approx 50 L _ { \odot } , shared by the two components , one of which is driving the molecular outflow that has a dynamical timescale of less than a few thousand years .
The jets of the two individual components are not aligned .
Submillimeter observations show that the region lacks the typical hot-core chemistry .

Conclusions : We find two protostellar objects , whose associated circumstellar and parent core masses are high enough to suggest that they may evolve into intermediate-mass stars .
This is corroborated by their association with a very massive and energetic CO outflow , suggesting high protostellar accretion rates .
The short dynamical timescale of the outflow , the pristine chemical composition of the cloud core and absence of hot core tracers , the absence of detectable radio continuum emission , and the very low protostellar luminosity argue for an extremely early evolutionary stage .