Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran on Tuesday said that a home-built rocket sent into space will be able to take a satellite into low orbit around the earth.
Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar also vowed that Iran will soon put its own satellite into orbit, after a dummy was sent into space in Monday’s rocket launch.
Iran declared the test a success for its plan over the next two years to launch four satellites for research, especially for improvement of telecommunications and monitoring of natural disasters.
The Safir-e Omid (Ambassador of Hope) rocket, which is about 22 meters long, with a diameter of 1.25 meters, weighs more than 26 tons and is capable of putting a light satellite into low earth orbit between 250 and 500 kilometers above the earth.
Safir-e Omid rocket, which is Iran’s first domestically-produced satellite carrier, was successfully launched on Sunday in the presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who read out the launch countdown.
The rocket, built by Iranian experts, was launched on the auspicious occasion of birthday anniversary of Imam Mahdi, the 12th Imam of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) Infallible Household.
Brigadier General Najjar also hailed the launch of the Safir 1 satellite carrier as a triumph in domestic scientific and technological progress.
“Iranian scientists are always reaching new peaks in scientific and technological progress,” Najjar said.
Referring to the satellite-carrier rocket as “a precise guided launcher,” the minister said Safir 1 “can carry different satellites into the space and put them in pre-planned position.”
All parts of the rocket were produced inside the country and by Iranian experts, Najjar said adding that all pre-planned goals have been achieved by launching the satellite.
“The successful launch of Safir 1 shows that Iran has access to the ultra-modern technology required to manufacture, launch and track satellites as well as transmit and receive information from them,” he added.
Tehran has said it would help other Islamic states to launch satellites into the orbit.
The Head of the Iranian Aerospace Organization Reza Taqipour told press tv that the Safir launch will pave the way for Iran to send its domestically-built telecommunications satellite, Omid (Hope), into orbit “in the near future”.
“The main aim of the launch of Safir 1 was to reach a pre-planned orbit and to improve the country’s space industries,” Taqipour said.
Taqipour said Iran has plans to put a “series of satellites” into space by 2010 to aid natural disaster management programs and improve telecommunications.
