Iran’s space program is advancing in its infrastructure development, satellite development, and satellite data and imagery services, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported on Thursday, citing the head of the Iranian Space Agency, Hassan Salarieh.
Salarieh said Iran is expected to inaugurate several new facilities in the coming months, including laboratories, satellite control centers, and the Chabahar launch site in the country’s southeast. He added that Iran is establishing a nationwide network of satellite control centers to shorten communication times with satellites, streamline in-orbit testing, and extend their operational lifespans.
Among the major space projects being led by the ayatollah regime, Salarieh listed the Nahid 2 and Nahid 3 satellites, the Shahid Soleimani satellite constellation, the Fars 2 and Fars 3 observation satellites, and the development of Iran’s first domestically produced radar satellite.
He said that combining satellite imagery with artificial intelligence is expected to increase the economic value of space data and assist civilian sectors such as agriculture, water resource management, environmental protection, land monitoring, and emergency management.
Salarieh added that communications satellites being developed by Iranian experts are expected to provide a significant portion of the country’s communications infrastructure in the future, either directly or in a supporting capacity.
Iran Space Agency emphasizes coordination with China
The head of the Iranian Space Agency emphasized that international cooperation is one of the priorities of Iran’s space program, specifically noting continued cooperation with China and Iran’s participation in the Chang’e lunar exploration project.
He said Iran places importance both on exporting space products and services to other countries and on learning from the capabilities of leading countries in the field.
Addressing updates to Iran’s space program for the coming decade, Salarieh said the plan is being adjusted in line with technological advances, after some technologies reached maturity and certain projects required revisions.
Regarding satellite launch vehicles, he said the Simurgh and Qaem 100 launchers had reached an “acceptable” level of maturity and completed several successful launches.
Salarieh said Iran is also developing more advanced generations of launch vehicles, with testing expected to begin soon, as well as an upgraded version of the Simurgh launcher intended to increase payload capacity for low Earth orbit and higher orbits.
He said testing of the upgraded Simurgh began about two years ago and would continue this year.
Israel stymies Iranian attempts at satellite launches
The US intelligence community’s 2024 worldwide threat assessment warned that Iran’s development of satellite launch vehicles “would shorten the timeline” for it to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The IDF on March 8 attacked Iran's Aerospace Headquarters for launching satellites, technology which had potential dual use for being incorporated in future attempts to develop nuclear weapons which could be fired long range into space and hit the US.
The headquarters had been used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to promote its aerospace efforts, including the 2022 launch of the Khayyam satellite, successfully launched by Iran using a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Until attacking the site, Israeli officials were concerned that the Khayyam and the latest space cooperation between Moscow and Tehran would increase Iran’s capabilities to potentially launch ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) as well as improve its monitoring of targets in the Jewish state and throughout the region in the short-term.
An additional concern for Jerusalem was that Khayyam and future Russian-Iranian satellites could reduce Israeli spies’ ability to penetrate the Islamic Republic’s border with operations that hold back its nuclear progress.
Prior to the June war, Tehran managed numerous satellite launches in recent years, some on its own, and some in conjunction with Moscow.
During that period of time, such satellite launches were often viewed by the Jewish state and by America as a grave danger, due to their being a potential dual-use threat and a move toward producing nuclear weapons, including ICBMs which might eventually reach the US.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.