Iran to launch bio-capsule into space

The head of Iran’s Space Agency (ISA) says the country is set for the upcoming launch into space of a bio-capsule and two more satellites by the end of the Iranian calendar year (ending March 20).
The Iranian bio-capsule will take a live creature into orbit by early September, said ISA chief Hamid Fazeli on Thursday .

He also said that ‘Fajr’ (Dawn) satellite will blast into space by summer’s end and finally the student-made ‘Navid Elm-o-Sanat’ (Hope for Science and Technology) will be launched into orbit as early as February.

In March, Iran successfully launched Kavoshgar 4 rocket, capable of sending satellites and carrying live creatures into space.

Fazeli hailed the surge in Iran’s space activities, adding that such breakthroughs have only been made possible by local expertise and endeavors.

As part of a plan to develop its space program, Iran successfully launched a satellite, dubbed Rassad (Observation), into the earth’s orbit on June 15.

The Rassad satellite is the country’s first space-based imaging device.

Its mission is to take photos of the earth’s surface and relay them to the earth-based stations together with telemetric information.

Iran launched its first domestically-built data-processing satellite, the Omid (Hope), into orbit in 2009.

Iran is one of the 24 founding members of the United Nations’ Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which was set up in 1959.