Iranian Space Agency - Orbital Launches

Orbital Launches

On August 17, 2008, Iran proceeded with the second test launch of a two-stage Safir SLV from a site south of Semnan in the northern part of the Dasht-e-Kavir desert. Reza Taghizadeh, head of the Iranian Aerospace Organization, told state television "The Safir (Ambassador) satellite carrier was launched today and, for the first time, we successfully launched a dummy satellite into orbit". On February 2, 2009, Iranian state television reported that Iran's first domestically made satellite Omid (from the Persian امید, meaning "Hope") had been successfully launched into LEO by a version of Iran's Safir rocket, the Safir-2 and therefore Iran became the 9th country to put a domestically built satellite into orbit. The operation was made to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. In February 2011, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that there will be many launches of indigenously produced orbiters in 2011-2012 period.

Iran plans to send one-ton satellites into an orbit of 1,000 kilometers and is setting up a new launch base for this purpose. Iran is also planning to launch satellites into orbits of up to 36,000 kilometers in 2016.