Iran’s 2nd satellite scheduled for 2011

Iran has drawn up its final schedule to launch a semi-domestic research satellite, the Mesbah in 2011, part of Tehran’s effort for an independent space program.

“The completion of the semi-domestic research satellite Mesbah is another recent achievement of Iranian aerospace experts,” General Mehdi Farahi, head of Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO) told Mehr News Agency.

“Mesbah (meaning ‘Lantern’ in Persian) has a lifelong of three years. It is equipped with a store and forward communications receiver that can gather information from various parts of the planet and transmits it back to earth,” he said.

The satellite is LEO (Low Earth Orbiting) which can be located at orbits of 250 to 1000 kilometers above earth surface.

“Italy will cooperate with Aerospace Industries Organization to send Mesbah into space. We hope the launch will be carried out successfully in 2011,” Farahi continued.

Mesbah will weigh 63.5 kilograms, over 2 times more than Omid, which was placed into orbit via two carrier rockets in February.

The design and building of Mesbah had been initiated 32 years ago in 1977. After a 19-year delay, in 1996, the project was resumed and is scheduled to be finalized in 2011.

Omid was Iran’s first research satellite that was designed for gathering information and testing equipment. After orbiting for three months, Omid successfully completed its mission without any problems. It completed more than 700 orbits over seven weeks and reentered the earth’s atmosphere on April 25.