TEHRAN – Iran’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi says the country’s first radio telescope has been launched into space and more astronomical services will be given to users shortly.

IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK

The minister said that the project is in line with the policy of making space technology more applicable.

During a Monday ceremony to inaugurate an EMC lab in Tehran, Azari Jahromi noted that the ten-year plan for the space sector has been completed and now a new plan should be devised, dolat.ir reported.

“For example, monitoring rice and poppy cultivation in the country used to be carried out through this space technology, and now we have localized this technology technically and scientifically.”

He also commented on the construction and launching of satellites as another mission of the Ministry saying that ‘Message’ and ‘Friendship’ satellites could not be put in the orbit, but this is part of the space knowledge experience that the country needs.

Azari Jahromi further announced that a telecommunications satellite called Nahid 1 will be launched in June adding that its construction process began in the second administration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and ended in President Hassan Rouhani’s second administration.

“Nahid 1 is currently being delivered to the Ministry of Defence and is scheduled to be put 250 kilometres into orbit,” underlined Azari Jahromi.

According to the ICT minister, another satellite called Victory of Science and Industry would be placed 500 kilometers into the orbit next year as well, while the construction process of “Pars 1” will be finished.

“Based on these experiences, we will build “Pars 2” and “Nahid 2”, and work on “Geo” satellite in the future,” stressed the Iranian minister.

Azari Jahromi explained that the orbital points in the geo belong to Iran for the next two years, expressing the hope that the country would be able to orbit the satellite in due time.

Iran is one of the 9 superior states in building satellites beside the U.S., 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.