Iran among top ten countries in manufacturing satellite, space launch vehicle: Minister
Iran’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Issa Zarepour says the Islamic Republic is among the top 10 countries in manufacturing satellite and space launch vehicle.
Iran is in possession of the base for launching satellite-carrying rockets into space and ground stations to receive data from satellites, Zarepour said in an interview with Iran’s Arabic-language television news network Al-Alam TV on Sunday.
Pointing to a significant milestone for Iran’s space program after the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, he said, “For example, our space launch vehicles can carry satellites weighing up to 200 kg and place them in orbit.”
Iran also plans to send heavier satellites into space in the next 5 years, the minister noted.
Zarepour pointed to significant advancements in the country’s space program for the year 1402 and said, “For the first time, Iran succeeded in placing its satellites in a Low Earth orbit, which is at a distance of 450 to 2,000 km from the earth. Iranian satellites are now in space.”
In the coming year, Iran plans to work on preparing a group of communications and internet satellites to be sent to space, especially in remote areas, he added.
The minister noted that only two of 12 space launches Iran made in 1402 were carried out by Russia given Moscow’s great advancement in space technology.
He said Iran is currently building the largest space base in West Asia in the south of the country whose first phase will be completed by the next year.
Despite sanctions imposed by Western countries in recent years, Iran has taken giant strides in the civilian space program.
Late in February, Iran successfully put into orbit the domestically-built Pars 1 research-sensing satellite. The 134-kilogram satellite was launched by a Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s far eastern Amur region.
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