Iran launches its first satellite
February 25, Iran said that it had successfully tested its first satellite what that had reached space. The announcement made on state-run television, was unclear, but appeared to refer to Iran’s efforts to launch its first commercial satellites into orbit.
Iran’s Science and Technology defence Ministries built the craft, the state-run television quoted Mohsen Bahrami, the head of Iran’s Space Research center. Bahrami provided no other details beyond saying that Iran had successfully launched what he called a space rocket or space missile.
Iran has announced that it wanted to be able to send its own satellites, including commercial satellites, into orbit. But it has revelaed little information about the project.
In 2005, Iran launched its first satellite in a joint project with Russia. The government has said that Iran hopes to launch four more satellites by 2010, the government has said, to increase the number of land and mobile telephone lines to 80 million from 22 million. It also hopes to expand its Internet base user.
