Iran to send observation satellite into orbit in days

Vahidi had earlier informed that Iran intends to send Fajr satellite into orbit in the near future, and he told reporters on Monday that the satellite would launch in less than two weeks now. "The Fajr satellite will be launched on Khordad 3 (May 23)," the director of the Aerospace Industries Mehdi Farahi said. It will be the fourth satellite sent into space since 2009 by Iran. The UN Security Council has imposed on Iran an almost total embargo on space technologies since 2007. The Fajr (Dawn) satellite was presented by the Iranian officials as "an observation and measurement" satellite weighing 50 kilos (110 pounds), built by Sa-Iran, a company affiliated to the defense ministry. Fajr, which is equipped with solar panels, has an expected life of 18 months, longer than the three previous observation equipment or experimental communications satellite already put into orbit by Iran. Iran has so far launched Omid in February 2009, Rassad in June 2011 and Navid in February 2012. Farahi said that Fajr would be launched by Safir-B1 rocket which is able to place a load of 50 kilos on a low orbit of 300 to 450 kilometers (186-279 miles). Iran has an ambitious space program. Two week ago, the country announced that it would send more living creatures into the space by the next three months. "Given the good support that has been offered by the government, we will have a program for sending living creatures into space," Head of the Iranian Space Agency Hamid Fazeli said. "The preliminary steps have already been taken and the living creatures will be sent into the space by the next two or three months," Fazeli added. He further announced that Iran will send Fajr (Dawn), Tolou (Sunrise) and Elm-o Sana'at (Promise of Science and Industry) satellites into orbit this year. Iran has already sent small animals into space - a rat, turtles and worms - aboard a capsule carried by its Kavoshgar-3 rocket in 2010. The Islamic republic, which first put a satellite into orbit in 2009, has outlined an ambitious, but fully home-grown, space program and has, thus far, made giant progress in the field despite western sanctions and pressures against its advancement.