Iran's Satellite Fails to Reach Orbit

TEHRAN (defapress)- Iran's Communication and Information Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said on Tuesday that the successful launch of the rocket to place the country’s Payam satellite into the orbit ended with failure at the final stage.

News ID: 75004

Date: 15 January 2019 - 16:00

Referring to the launching ceremony which was held in Imam Khomeini Spaceport early on Tuesday, Azari Jahromi said that Payam did not reach enough speed in the third stage and was not put into orbit.

He added that Dousti satellite is waiting to be launched.

Payam-e Amirkabir Satellite was designed and developed by Tehran’s Amirkabir University of Technology and was planned to carry out imagery mission in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Iran is one of the 9 superior states in building satellites beside the US, Russia, Europe and Canada.

Head of the Iranian Space Agency (ISA) Morteza Barari had announced in mid-December that his country's plans to manufacture a home-made telecommunication satellite in the next few years.

"Building an indigenized telecommunication satellite within the next 7 years is atop the ISA's plans," Barari said.

He added that the preliminary steps had already been taken by Iran to manufacture a telecommunication satellite by building Nahid 1 and Nahid 2 satellites.

Barari underlined that Iran also planned to build a sensing satellite with a 1-meter precision power in 7 years.

Barari had also announced in October that his country was standing among the 9 top world countries in developing satellites.

He also added that Iran ranked first in the region in the aerospace sector, explaining that Iran ranked 14th in the world in 2016 but it jumped three grades and ranked 11th in the world in 2017.

Also in the same month, Barari had said that the country's experts had built several new satellites, adding that they would be launched into the orbit soon.

"We hope that satellite Zafar will be ready by the end of this (Iranian) year (started on March 21) and we will pursue its launch next year," Barari told FNA.

He added that satellite Dousti, developed by Sharif University of Technology, had gone through the process of compatibility with the launcher and was standing the launch permission, while satellite Payam, built by Amir Kabir University, and Nahid communication satellite were under the compatibility process and would be launched into the orbit after receiving necessary permissions.

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