Iran to launch three satellites in coming years: Iran's space chief
Head of the Iranian Space Agency (ISA) Morteza Barari has said that Iran plans to launch three satellites in upcoming years.
"Following the implementation of the country's second decade-long space development program, three satellites are being developed to be ultimately put into orbit," Barari, who is also Iran's Deputy Minister of Communication and Information Technology, said on Sunday.
"The second decade-long space development program was initiated in 2016 and will continue until 2025 with the development of space-related infrastructure," he added.
The ISA chief stressed that no country had assisted Iran in the development of satellites launched by the country so far, adding that the Islamic Republic's top universities had instead made good strategic and long-term investments in the field.
Iran's indigenous satellite launch capabilities first made headlines when the first locally-built satellite, Omid (Hope), was launched in 2009.
The country also sent its first bio-capsule containing living creatures into space in February 2010, using a Kavoshgar-3 (Explorer-3) carrier.
In February 2015, the Islamic Republic placed its domestically-made Fajr (Dawn) satellite into orbit, which is capable of taking and transmitting high-quality photos to stations on Earth.
In January 2019, the domestically-built Payam (Message) satellite was launched into space with an aim to collect environmental information; however, technical problems that occurred during the final stage of the launch prevented the spacecraft from reaching orbit.
Speaking on Sunday, Barari noted that that the development of space technology in Iran could lead to "major" developments in the country's economy.
The Iranian space chief explained that the newly emerging economic field related to space technologies had grown 139 percent during the time span of a decade and therefore represented an economic opportunity.
Further elaborating on the economic benefits of advanced space technology, Barari explained that satellite images could help increase efficiency in managing Iran's environmental and agricultural sectors.
Data gathered from the satellites could also have a major role in avoiding and managing natural disasters, he said.
The Iranian space chief added that pre-existing satellite information greatly contributed in managing and reducing damages inflicted from major floods earlier this year.
"With new satellite data, this can be done much better," he said.
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