Iran puts second satellite into orbit

The Islamic Republic of Iran successfully launches its second satellite christened Rasad (Observation) into the earth’s orbit.

The satellite, which is the country’s first such imaging device, was launched by the Safir-e-Rasad satellite carrier on Wednesday thanks to Iranian aerospace scientists and experts’ endeavor.

Despite its 15.3-kilogram weight, which puts it under the category of the micro-satellites, Rasad has all features of a big satellite.

It has undergone all the stages required for its designing, manufacturing, assembly, test and preparation for launch inside the country.

It will orbit the earth at an altitude of 260 kilometers 15 times every 24 hours.

Its mission is to take images of the earth’s surface at 150-square-kilometers resolution and relay them to the earth-based stations together with telemetric information.

It’s equipped with solar panels and uses solar energy to work.

Iran launched its first domestically-produced satellite Omid (Hope) in 2009, which made it the ninth country to develop satellite launch capability.

Tehran also plans to launch the country’s first manned mission to space by 2019.