Iran's Pars-2 remote sensing satellite completed and placed on launch programme

Hassan Salarieh, the head of Iran's Space Agency, said the country's new Pars-2 remote sensing satellite has been completed and placed on the launch programme, with details of the launch to be announced later. Speaking at a ceremony marking Space Week at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Salarieh described Pars-2 as a more advanced version of the Paya satellite, with imaging accuracy better than three metres.

Salarieh said very positive developments have occurred in Iran's space industry in recent years, especially over the past two years, which he described as records in the field. He said Iran has reached historic milestones in many space industry development indicators, attributing the results to teamwork across various bodies, including the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, universities, research centres and other institutions active in the country's space sector.

On recent achievements, Salarieh said Iran's first telecommunications satellite, Nahid-2, was successfully placed in orbit and most of its tests were successfully completed. The project was developed by specialists at the Iranian Space Research Institute under the communications ministry with the help of a network of knowledge-based companies, and more advanced generations are now being built. He said another major success was the consolidation of space launch vehicles, including the performance of the Qaem-100 satellite carrier, and that the Chamran satellite's performance was fully successful.

Salarieh also referred to heavy launches, saying the next success was the launch of the heaviest payload by the Simorgh satellite carrier, on which colleagues in the defence ministry are working. He said the simulator software test for the Saman orbital transfer block, presented by the Space Research Institute, was carried out with the Simorgh carrier. The Saman block, more advanced versions of which are under construction, plays a major role in reaching high orbits.

He added that the first example of the Shahid Soleimani constellation was unveiled last year during the Ten-Day Dawn celebrations, and that the constellation is under construction and is among the communications ministry's most important space industry projects. According to Mehr News, the announcements were made during Space Week at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.