Iran follows Omid success with plans for crews

After only twenty-three eccentric orbits of Omid, Iran's first domestically built and launched satellite, the Iranian Aerospace Agency announced plans Thursday to put a crew into space by 2021.

According to Iranian Press TV - "The program's preliminary needs, assessments and feasibility studies have been carried out," Head of the Iranian Aerospace Organization, Reza Taqipour announced on Wednesday.

"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," he added.

According to Taqipour, the Aerospace Organization had drawn up a comprehensive plan for the project that clarifies the role, which various academic and research institutions must play to carry out a successful space mission by 2021.

On February 3, Iran entered a new stage of its space program by carrying out its first ever entirely domestic satellite launch and sending the national satellite Omid (Hope) into orbit. The research satellite was sent to orbit with the help of a Safir 2 rocket.

Omid is a lightweight telecommunications satellite that has been designed for gathering information and testing equipment.

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

Iran launches first homegrown satellite

The Iranian government has again demonstrated its capacity to deliver a payload into earth orbit, launching it's first "home grown" satellite, the small Omid communications payload Mesbah. Policy makers have long known the capacity to launch a payload into Earth orbit, in theory, demonstrates the capacity to place a warhead anywhere on the surface of the Earth. The launch into a highly-inclined orbit from a relatively high lattitude is also a demonstration of a powerful booster, in this case the Safir 2.

According to Stephen Clark at SPACEFLIGHTNOW.COM, the small payload is in a highly inclined orbit, relative to the equator, only 2 degrees out of phase with the inclination of the orbital plain occupied by the International Space Station, though Mesbah's orbit is of greater eccentricity, with apogee of 378 to 439 kilometers (235 to 273 miles) and perigee of roughly 246 kilometers (153 miles).

Though this orbit is more highly elliptical, a longer semimajor axis demonstrates the, perhaps unintended, capacity to allow vehicles in lower orbits of less eccentricity to catch up with the Iranian payload. Though Iran calls Mesbah a communications satellite, the minimal size and low orbit of high orbital inclination relative to the equator allows communication windows to open over any single point on 80 percent of the surface of Earth only three or four times daily, in a set of opportunities bunched together in roughly 90 to 100 minute intervals. This hardly the optimal orbit for fast point to point communications, as any long-term veteran of the ISS will testify.

Read the GlobalSecurity.org summary of Iranian Safir launch capacity HERE.

Iran plans to launch humans into space

New Scientist & Reuters

Iran plans to send a crewed rocket into space in the next 10 years, state television said on Thursday, just days after the Islamic Republic announced it had put a dummy satellite into orbit.

"One of the aims of Iran's 10-year space programme is to send a manned rocket into space," state television quoted Reza Taghipour, the head of Iran's aerospace organisation, as saying. "Within the next six months to one year, the exact date of this mission will be determined."

Taghipour said Iran would cooperate with Islamic countries in building a satellite that the television report said would be called "Besharat", meaning "good news". He also said Iran was working with Russia and other Asian states to launch another satellite.

Only three other nations have launched humans into space - Russia, the US and China.

Read More HERE.

Iran says it launched satellite into space

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it had launched its first domestically made satellite into space, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Iran's Omid (hope) satellite was launched on Sunday using the Safir (ambassador) satellite-carrier rocket," IRNA said, quoting a statement from Iran's armed forces.

Iran, embroiled in a standoff with the West over Tehran's disputed nuclear ambitions, caused international concern in February by testing the rocket designed to carry the satellite.

The West accuses Iran of trying to obtain nuclear arms under cover of a civilian program. Tehran insists it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad read out the launch countdown, said an official.

"The president attended Iran's Space Centre and ordered the launch ... He congratulated the Iranian nation on the great achievement," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham as saying.

The technology used to put satellites into space can also be used for launching weapons, but Iran says it has no plans to do so.

Iran, which refuses to recognize Israel, has missiles that can reach 2,500 km (1,250 miles), meaning it could hit Israel and U.S. military bases in the Gulf.