Deputy Head of the Space Research Center of Iran, Jafar Salehi, announced on Sunday the country's plans to launch a telecommunications satellite weighing 100 kg into orbit at an altitude of 7,000 km. He added that the next steps will include sending satellites into orbits over 10,000 km and finally into geostationary orbit about 36,000 km.
In April, the head of the Iranian Space Agency (ISA), Morteza Barari, announced that the country plans to launch its telecommunications satellite Nahid 1 into orbit by the end of the current Iranian year (March 19, 2021).
Iranian Minister of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said earlier this year that testing of the Arash space engine is another major achievement of the Republic's Space Research Center.
"The most important problem in the aerospace industry is that all these successes have been achieved in a situation where the country and Iran's aerospace industry, in particular, are under sanctions, and it is in no way possible to gain access to such technologies." noted by Azari Jahromi.
The Minister confirmed that "Iran is still doing a lot of activities in the aerospace industry and has managed to master the full cycle of space technologies." He noted that the country's Space Research Center is one of those Iranian institutions that have played a significant role in the development of these technologies.
A manned space flight, according to the Institute of Aerospace Research of Iran, will be possible as early as 2024.
Recall that in April 2020, the Aerospace Forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (VKS IRGC) successfully launched the first national military satellite into space. The satellite, dubbed Nur, was launched into 425 km orbit using a two-stage Kased launch vehicle. The launch was carried out from a cosmodrome in the central Iranian province of Semnan.
The United States believes that Tehran should abandon the launch of ballistic missiles, as this allegedly threatens the security of the region. Otherwise, Washington threatens to impose new economic sanctions on Iran.
