Iran Plans To Launch Satellites In Upcoming Months

Just over a month after a launcher was successfully tested, Iran is getting ready to send "at least two satellites" into orbit by the end of March, according to Telecommunications Minister Issa Zarepour. The US has frequently expressed concern that such launches could advance Iran's ballistic missile technology, perhaps leading to the delivery of nuclear warheads. Iran, meanwhile, says that its satellite and rocket launches are solely for civil or defensive purposes and that it is not aiming to develop nuclear weapons.

According to official news agency IRNA, Zarepour stated that preparations for the Nahid 1 and Nahid 2 satellites were underway. A group of communication satellites created by the Iranian Space Research Center are referred to as Nahid. By the end of the year, which is March 20 in the Persian calendar, "we will have launches," claims Zarepour. Iranian state television declared the "successful suborbital launch of the satellite launcher dubbed Ghaem-100" at the beginning of November.

The first three-stage solid-fuel satellite launcher in the nation, the Ghaem-100 rocket was produced by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' aerospace division, the channel added. In April 2020, Iran was able to successfully launch its first military satellite into orbit, earning harsh criticism from Washington.

Another Iranian satellite, known as Khayyam, was launched by Russia in August of this year using a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. According to Iran's space agency, Russia built the equipment under Iranian supervision. At the time, the US asserted that a growing Russia-Iran alliance constituted a "profound threat" to the globe and that the Khayyam would offer "major eavesdropping capabilities." The goal of Khayyam, according to Iran's space agency, was to "watch the country's boundaries" and assist in the administration of agriculture and natural resources.