Iran to Send New Satellites into Space
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Director of Iran Space Agency (ISA) Hamid Fazeli said the country plans to launch two new satellites into orbit.
Speaking on the sidelines of the opening ceremony for the World Space Week in Tehran, Fazeli told reporters that two new satellites, dubbed Tadbir (Prudence) and Zafar (Triumph), are to be sent into space in the future.
Tadbir satellite, he said, should undergo a series of prelaunch tests to validate its operational readiness, adding that such tests will take 2 to 3 months.
Afterwards, the indigenous satellite will be ready for blast-off, Fazeli announced.
Iran also launched its domestically-built Navid-e Elm-o Sanat (Harbinger of Science and Industry) satellite into orbit in February 2012.
Fezali further explained that Tadbir enjoys more advanced systems compared to Navid satellite, making it possible to capture images with higher precision.
The Iranian official also noted that Zafar satellite will be sent into space in the next Iranian year (starts on 21 March 2014), on a satellite carrier, known as Simorgh (the Roc).
Also in September, Chancellor of Sharif University of Technology Reza Rousta Azad told Tasnim that Iran was ready to send a home-made satellite, called Sharifsat, into orbit by an indigenous satellite carrier.
“The satellite will be sent into space on board ‘Safir B-1’ satellite carrier to provide aerial photography and colorful imagery of the Earth,” he said at the time.
He also said Sharifsat, which weighs less than 50 kilograms, has been designed and constructed by more than 100 students, alumni and professors of Sharif University of Technology.
Iran sent a monkey into space aboard an indigenous bio-capsule code-named Pishgam (Pioneer) in January 2013.
The country successfully launched its first indigenous data-processing satellite, Omid (Hope), into orbit in 2009.
As part of a plan to develop its space program, Iran also successfully launched its second satellite, dubbed Rassad (Observation), into the earth's orbit in June 2011. Rassad's mission was to take images of the earth and transmit them along with telemetry information to ground stations.