Iran Receives First Signals from Newly-Launched Satellite

The Iran Space Agency (ISA) announced that “Sorayya”, a domestically-developed satellite, which was sent into space on Saturday, has been successful in accomplishing its mission as signals are transmitted to Earth.

The ISA announced on Sunday the successful communication of signals from the indigenous satellite to Earth as a part of Tehran’s breakthroughs and achievements in the space sector.

Iran on Saturday successfully put the “Sorayya” satellite in an orbit at 750 kilometers above the surface of the earth in 11 minutes on the back of an indigenous carrier named “Qa’em 100”.

The launch was reported to have set a “new record” in space launches as this is the first time that Iranian satellite carriers reach the 750km orbit.

Iran has taken giant strides in the field of science of technology in recent years, despite US sanctions and threats, and is among the world’s top 10 states capable of building and launching satellites.

Tehran launched its first satellite, Omid (Hope), in 2009 and its Rasad (Observation) satellite was sent into orbit in 2011. In 2012, Iran successfully put its third domestically-made satellite, Navid (Good News), into orbit.

In April 2020, the country announced the successful launch of its first military satellite into orbit. In March 2022, it blasted its second military satellite into space. In August 2022, Iran sent Khayyam, a high-resolution imaging satellite, into orbit. And in late September, Iran announced that the homegrown Nour-3 imaging satellite was successfully placed into a 450km orbit of the earth with the homemade Qased satellite carrier.

The ISA has announced that work was underway to prepare several more satellites for launch into orbit. Iranian officials have repeatedly stressed Tehran’s serious determination to advance space technology.

Also on Sunday, Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Issa Zarepour wrote on his social media account that Iran’s satellite monitoring stations received signals from the domestically-manufactured satellite as well as telemetry data concerning the state of energy supply, automatic positioning, communication and control, and processing systems, which indicate that “Sorayya” is in good condition.