Iran to launch communication satellite

Monday, 25 August 2008, 16:26 IST
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Tehran: Iran has the technology to develop satellites and would soon send a communication satellite into the orbit, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said, official IRNA news agency reported Sunday. "Iran has obtained the technology to build satellites and will use its know-how to launch its first remote sensing telecommunication satellite into space," the president told a gathering in the central Iranian province of Arak Saturday. Ahmadinejad added that the satellite developed by its scientists is the most advanced technology of its kind. Western sanctions have been proved ineffective in obstructing Iran's progress in rocketry and space applications, he said in an apparent reference to bans imposed on the country in the backlash of a controversial nuclear power programme. "You imposed sanctions on Iran, but our nation has now the ability to launch rockets into the orbit which can carry satellites and will shortly use their ability," he told the gathering. Iranian Space Organization chief Reza Taghipour Wednesday said the country would send its first astronaut in space in the next decade. Iran earlier this month had announced the successful launch of a homemade satellite-carrier named Safir (Messenger), which is capable of putting small satellites into low earth orbit. Iran, embroiled in a standoff with the West over its disputed nuclear ambitions, has pursued a space programme for several years.
Source: IANS
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