Iran prepares to launch satellite
press tv
Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:18:38 GMT
Iran has announced that the country is set to send its first remote
sensing telecommunication satellite into space in the near future.
In a Saturday address in the central city of Arak, the Iranian
President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said sanctions have proven ineffective
in obstructing Iran’s march of progress.
"The Islamic Republic has now developed the technology to build
satellites and will use its advanced technology to launch its first
remote sensing telecommunication satellite into space," President
Ahmadinejad said.
The report comes after the Wednesday announcement of the head of Iran’s
Aerospace Organization that the country is preparing to send its first
astronaut to space within the next decade.
The country’s homemade satellite is of the most advanced technology of
its kind, President Ahmadinejad continued.
The Iranian president added that the country’s first homemade satellite
carrier Safir 1 will help the satellite reach a speed of 8000 m/s, the
highest speed satellites can reach.
President Ahmadinejad cautioned global powers that their sanctions
would only make the Iranian nation more determined to reach its goals.
Earlier on Sunday, Iran successfully launched its first domestically
manufactured satellite carrier, Safir 1, which will be used to send a
lightweight telecommunications satellite, Omid (meaning ‘hope’ in
Persian), into orbit.
Following the successful launch of the Iranian satellite, the US
spokesman Gordon Johndroe described ‘the Iranian development and
testing of rockets’ as ‘troubling’
The West continues to accuse the Islamic Republic of pursuing a
military nuclear program. This is while the UN nuclear watchdog has
confirmed the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in the
country’s nuclear program.