Iranian minister promises ‘good news’ on launch of satellites

Iran will have “good news” about its launch of satellites before the end of the current Persian year in March 2022, the country’s minister of communications and information technology says. 

Issa Zarepour said on Sunday that Iranian youths have made good efforts to build and launch satellites in the past decade.

“We will speed up work so that we can become one of the six countries that can launch satellites into the geocentric orbit,” he told in his first news conference in Tehran.

Zarepour, who supervises Iran’s space program, reiterated that the project to reach the higher orbit was planned to be accomplished in 10 years, but Iran’s President Ibrahim Raeisi asked to speed up the program.

Last month, President Raeisi chaired a meeting of Iran’s Supreme Space Council attended by the ministers of defense, communications and information technology, foreign affairs, and industry, where he described the space program as a strong front against the enemies.

“All capacities have been used to develop the space industry, and launching the satellites is just the beginning of this roadmap,” Zarepour said.

He said several satellites are in line to be launched. “We intend to run a satellite program for civilian needs so that the production and construction of satellites can play a role along with other industries in the country.”