Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said on Wednesday that Iran will launch a new satellite before the Ten-Day Dawn celebrations marking the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“From the two satellites that President Rouhani referred earlier, one has been launched and the other one will soon be sent into orbit,” Hatami said.
The Ten-day celebrations start from February 1-10.
The satellite will be carried by the Safir satellite-carrier rocket, he told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting.
The minister added that the satellite is to be sent into a 500km orbit.
Iran attempted on January 15 to launch the Payam satellite into orbit but the rocket’s third stage failed to provide enough speed to reach the orbit.
Touching upon the partly failed Payam Satellite launch in mid-January, he said that “the technical problem is clear for us.”
He hoped that the technical problem would be solved as soon as possible and the next satellite would be launched into the orbit with success.
Payam, a 90kg non-military satellite, was to be sent into a 500km orbit using domestically-made Simorgh satellite-carrier rocket.
Manufactured by Amirkabir University of Technology, the image resolution of the Payam satellite was 45 meters and could stay in orbit for three years.
