Iran is getting ready to put 2 new sattelites into orbit, Seyyed Hossein Mousavi, an advisor to head of the Iranian Space Agency stressed in an interview released by the Iranian media on January 14.
“It is fortunate to say that we are in very good conditions in terms of developing satellite technology and launch among regional countries, and due to sanctions imposed on our country, our goal is to become self-sufficient in this field,” he said
Mousavi claimed that the Iran capabilities of putting Payam (Message) and Doosti (Friendship) satellites into orbin show the country’s progress in the field of satellite technology and science. He further stressed that Iran is the leading Middle Eastern country, which is ative in the space field of manufacturing satellite launchers.
“No foreign country has provided us with space technology and this is purely domestic know-how,” he said.
According to the interview, Payam is capable of taking high-resolution images. The sattelite will last in orbit for a period of two years. Mousavi said that this can be then used for agricultural development purposes, studying vegetation and forests, silviculture and other peaceful goals.
At the same time, the US-Israeli-led bloc is concerned that Iran’s space program is a sign of the country’s growing missile capabilities and thus a threat to the Israeli-US dominance in the region.
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Good for Iran. Hopefully, one with military use will orbit over Syria and occupied Palestine too and give real-time data and imagery.
Last time the US was threatening Iran, they launched a satellite, and its orbit took it over Diego Garcia, the American B2 bomber base. I wonder if the US moving its B2’s to Hawaii has anything to do with Iranian missile advances?
This is what the Americuns are scared of, if Iran can launch satellites, it can also launch ICBM’s. If the US attacks Iran, a short time later a missile lands in New York.
>>“No foreign country has provided us with space technology and this is purely domestic know-how,” he said.<<
I like Iran, but I take that with a grain of salt. Just like Iran's ballistic missile program has no input whatsoever from a foreign source *cough* North Korea *cough*. And just like Iran's indigenous aircraft designs look suspiciously much like retro engineered US designs.
I don't mind that they do, as a Dutch saying says, better well stolen then poorly written yourself, and Israel's own indigenous aircraft designs were based on stolen French Mirage designs (as in literally stolen), but I'm just allergic to government bullshit.
Any country that has to start from scratch as Iran had to in 1979 will quickly find out that it is much faster and efficient to gain a domestic industry by reverse engineering existing products than by having to create your own from ground up without any prior experience or knowledge. By the way reverse engineering is no easy task by itself. Iran’s missile program started out through the reverse engineering of foreign missiles but today Iran produces its own indigenous missiles through the experiences and knowledge gained from the initial experiences. Sames goes for other military equipment. The initial products will have to be reverse engineered products which gives you a base of experience and knowledge to create your own product. Also how many countries in the world do you know which create all their military equipment purely on their own with zero input from any foreign nation or product. Maybe Russia? Who else? Virtually none. Even Russia gets technology transfer from the West for its non-military products and equipment, something that Iran doesn’t get.
Iran’s latest missiles are 100% indigenous, you won’t find a similar design anywhere else in the world.
ISA announced that the last phase, the insertion of the satellite “failed” to reach the desired speed for the 500km orbit, but nobody seems to be upset and the head of ISA says it was a test to launch Friendship. Of course Israel immediately said there was no failure and the launch was to test a reentry vehicle. So, either: 1- it was really a failure. 2- All planned to test a RV. 3- It was a compromise to calm the nerves of some freaked out Europeans. Iran launched despite the US warnings but it didn’t reach the intended goals. This one seems weaker than the other two to me.
Despite what is said about Iran’s space launch vehicles, it has nothing to do with North Korea. A 5 minutes search will reveal when each country reached orbit and the vast difference between the two vehicles. Iran kick-started it’s missile programs with the help from the missiles purchased from Libyans North Koreans, but the path is clearly different as the type of missiles and their range, payload capacity, launchers and precision are not similar. I think Russia helped Iran greatly though as evident by Hout and Karrar and others.
Us Iranians used to hear contradictory statements about the country’s capabilities. On one hand everything Iran builds (from missiles to planes and submarines to nano-tech and optics) is s#it and doesn’t work, on the other hand the same rubbish and useless things put the world in danger. We heard Iran can’t build missiles, then can’t build missiles with range, then can’t make precise missiles, then UAVs are RC toy planes, then subs will sink, can’t launch live animals, they cannibalize airplanes to maintain the remaining (F-14’s said to be as low as 12, then 25, then 32, now 40) and lastly, the Kowsar is nothing but F-5. Great! Then nothing to worry about. Kowsar is exactly the same path China took with MiG-21, but it’s allright, it’s useless so stop freaking out.
NATO needs to blow up these launches… Iran needs to be “put on notice.”