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Iran Launches 1st Satellite with Own Rocket
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Iran has launched its first satellite into orbit using a modified homemade long-range missile. The small communications satellite, called Omid (meaning ‘hope’ on Farsi), was launched aboard a Safir 2 rocket on 2 February. |
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Omid will fly in an orbit between 250-400 km above the Earth. The satellite is designed to circle the Earth 15 times every 24 hours, according to state media sources. It carries experimental control systems, communications equipment, and a small remote sensing payload. It has two frequency bands and eight antennas for transmitting data, according to the Tehran Times.
With this launch, Iran joins a small group of countries with the capacity to build and launch their own satellites into orbit. The previous nation to attain this distinction was Israel in 1988.
The first all-Iranian satellite, Sina-1, was launched by a Russian Kosmos-3M rocket from Plestesk to the altitude of 700 km in October 2005. It carried remote sensing and communications payloads. Omid is the country’s first satellite to be launched from Iranian territory, using an indigenously built rocket.
Iranian engineers are currently working on the Small Multi-Mission Satellite (SMMS), a joint venture in cooperation with China and Thailand that is mainly aimed at disaster and environmental monitoring.
Iran is also planning a communications satellite called Zohreh (meaning ‘Venus’), a follow-on satellite from Sina-1 called Pars (also known as Sina-2) and Mesbah, which will have Italian input.
Mehran Mirshams, deputy head of Iran Aerospace Association, previously told news reporters that experts are currently engaged in the ZS4, SM2S and Sepehr satellite projects.
All these projects are expected to substantially expand the country's space communications and Earth observation capability.
Iran hopes to launch three more satellites by 2010, the government told state media.
