Iran readying to launch 3 new satellites into orbit

Tehran is preparing to send three new home-made satellites into orbit in the near future, a senior Iranian space official announced on Monday. “Sharif Sat, Fajr and Tadbir satellites are ready for launch and it is anticipated that one of them will be sent into orbit by the end of the current Iranian year (that ends on March 20),” Deputy Head of Iran Space Agency (ISA) Hamid Fazeli told reporters on Monday. Earlier today, Iran unveiled two newly-built satellite, Tadbir (Prudence) and Persian Gulf, in an official ceremony attended by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Vice-President for Executive Affairs Mohammad Shariatmadari and the country’s space officials. Persian Gulf is a telecommunication satellite and has been designed and manufactured by researchers of Malek Ashtar University of Technology. Also in December, a senior ISA official said that Tehran would orbit two new home-made satellites by the end of the Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2014). “Tests are being conducted on the two satellites of Sharif and Tadbir before the launching process,” Hamid Fazeli said. Early in September, Presidential Advisor and the ISA Chief Akbar Torkan said that the first satellite to be launched in the new government is called Tadbir. Earlier this year, Fazeli announced that the country would send 6 new home-made satellites, mostly made by Iranian universities, to the space in the current Iranian year. "Based on the foreseen timeline, Fajr, Sharif Sat, Tolou, Zafar, and A-Test will be sent to the space by the end of the current year," Fazeli told reporters in Tehran. He said that Mesbah is also among the satellites to be sent into orbit this year. Omid (hope) was Iran's first research satellite that was designed for gathering information and testing equipment. After orbiting for three months, Omid successfully completed its mission without any problem. It completed more than 700 orbits over seven weeks and reentered the Earth's atmosphere on April 25, 2009.