Iran launches second satellite-carrier Safir rocket into space

William Atkins
Monday, 18 August 2008 21:14

Science - Space

Omid is a future Iranian research satellite, the first operational satellite to be launched by the Iranian satellite-carrier rocket Safir. It will be placed in low-Earth orbit (LEO).

The satellite Omid will actually be Iran’s second satellite to be placed in orbit. The Sinah-1 was placed into orbit in 2005, but it was built by the Russians, and not by the Iranians.

The Omid will be Iran's first domestically built satellite—an important step in the Iranian space program. The rocket and satellite together are called Safir-e Omid ("messenger of hope ambassador of peace").

The Iranian satellite Omid will apparently monitor natural disasters, especially earthquakes, in Iran, along with improving and extending its telecommunications and date processing technologies.


Author’s note: The several news articles published on this launch are sketchy at best. Some are reporting no payload was launched, while others are reporting a “dummy” payload was launched. One article reported that Omid may have been launched, but that the launch of the satellite was being denied by the Iranians. I assume Iran is providing only a few details of this event, which is likely the reason for lack of concrete facts on this launch—and definitely the reason why I used words such as “apparently” and “supposedly” to describe portions of this article.