Iranian Space Agency - Manned Space Program

Manned Space Program

Iran expressed for the first time its intention to send a human to space during the summit of Soviet and Iranian Presidents at June 21, 1990. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev reached an agreement in principle with then-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to make joint Soviet-Iranian manned flights to Mir space station but this agreement was never realized after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Almost two decades later the Iranian News Agency claimed on November 21, 2005, that the Iranians have a manned space program along with plans for the development of a spacecraft and a space laboratory. Iran Aerospace Industries Organization (IAIO) head Reza Taghipour on August 20, 2008, revealed Iran intends to launch a manned mission into space within a decade. This goal was described as the country's top priority for the next 10 years, in order to make Iran the leading space power of the region by 2021.

In August 2010, President Ahmadinejad announced that Iran's first astronaut should be sent into space on board an Iranian spacecraft by no later than 2019. Later on in December 2010, Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister Reza Taghipour stated that “The initial steps for the plan have been taken, and the study phase on the definition of subsystems, sub-projects, costs, and what projects need to be developed toward that end, has been conducted, which needs to be submitted to the Supreme Council on Space”. According to Iranian manned space program, the first sub-orbital spaceflight with an Iranian on board will take place by 2016 at an altitude below 200 kilometers as preparation for the eventual orbital spaceflight.