Tehran, February 03: Iran's Defense Minister hails as a “brilliant achievement” the launch of the country's new fully-indigenous satellite into orbit, saying Iran will unveil new space achievements.
Iran successfully launched its Navid-e Elm-o Sanat satellite, completely designed and built by Iranian experts, into orbit early Friday following a decree by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Following the successful launch of Omid (Hope) and Rassad (Observation) satellites into space, Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO) had its third successful experience and institutionalized the technology of putting various satellites into orbit, Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said on Friday.
More brilliant accomplishments will be achieved in the fields of satellites and satellite-carriers in the near future, he added.
The Iranian minister stated that the Navid-e Elm-o Sanat satellite would beam its images to several ground stations across the country.
He noted that the telemetric and command stations give and receive data and control the satellite.
The 50-kilogram orbiter, which is of a type known as miniaturized or microsatellites, lifted off into space with an orbital angle of 55 degrees on the Iranian-made Safir satellite-carrier.
As part of a plan to develop its space program, Iran successfully launched Rassad satellite into the earth's orbit on June 15, 2011. It was the country's first space-based imaging device.
Iran launched its first domestically-built data-processing satellite, the Omid, into orbit in 2009.
Iran is one of the 24 founding members of the United Nations' Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which was set up in 1959.
---Agencies