Iran to send manned spacecraft flight by 2021

Iran has kick off a 12-year project to send an astronaut into space, just days after putting its first home-built satellite into orbit, Press TV reported on Thursday.

Reza Taqipour, the head of the Iranian Aerospace Organization said: "The programme's preliminary needs, assessments and feasibility studies have been carried out".

The organization had drawn up a comprehensive plan for the project and various academic and research institutions must play to carry out a successful space mission by 2021, he said.

"China and India managed to send an astronaut to space in a 15 year program. We see ourselves taking the same path, but we hope to reach that goal in a shorter period.

On February 03, Iran's Omid (Hope) lightweight telecommunications satellite was sent into space by the Iranian-produced satellite carrier Safir-II.

Equipped with two frequency bands and eight antennae, Omid would transmit information to and from earth while orbiting the planet 15 times a day.

After orbiting for one to three months, Omid would return to earth with data that would help Iranian experts send an operational satellite into space.

In February 2007, Iran joined the international space-faring community when it successfully tested a rocket that went into space as part of its planned drive to launch five satellites into orbit by 2010.

Iran has been pursuing a space program for the past few years. In October 2005, Iran's first satellite (the Russian-made Sina-I) was put into orbit by a Russian rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

Iran to send more satellites in Earth orbit

Iran plans to send satellites in medium and high Earth orbits in the next two or three years. On 3rd February Iran launched Omid light satellite in low Earth orbit, using the Safir 2 rocket. It coincided with celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and raised concerns in the United States and other countries about Iran’s potential use of long-range missiles to send warheads halfway around the globe.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said: “With this launch, the Islamic Republic of Iran has officially achieved a presence in space and it’s a "source of pride" for the Islamic republic”.

Hossein Rahimi, The chief of Iranian Scientific and Industrial Research, said: “Iran's next step in space technology was sending operational satellites in an orbit of 36,000 km. Iran has designed and manufactured Mesbah 1 telecommunications satellite but it could not be launched because of political stonewalling and we have to find a country which accepts to send the satellite in orbit”.

The scientific progress in the country will be able to launch Mesbah and similar projects in two or three years.