Iran to unveil explorer, build space town

Head of Iran's Space Agency Hamid Fazeli announced on Monday that the country will unveil an Explorer and build a space town in the near future. Speaking to reporters in a press conference on the occasion of the Space Week here in Tehran today, Fazeli noted his agency's projects, and said, "Scientists are conducting studies over an Explorer project and given the results gained from out studies and the tests done in this regard, we will soon announce the date for displaying this achievement once we are ascertained (of everything)." Elsewhere, he pointed to the country's plan for building a space town, and said, "Last year a promise was made about the building of a space town. This project is receiving the needed permissions and is under planning." He further praised the parliament's desirable cooperation with the country's space industries, and said good measures have been adopted in expanding Iran's space technology and science. "Despite the privatization policies requiring the government to shrink in size, we will witness organizational growth in this field," the Iranian Space Agency chief reiterated. He also said his agency is working on building joint satellite launch centers through cooperation with the Iranian Defense Industry and friendly states. Iran has recently taken wide strides in aerospace. The country sent the first biocapsule of living creatures into space in February, using its home-made Kavoshgar-3 (Explorer-3) carrier. Iran announced in February that it planned to unveil and send two recently-built satellites into space in the near future. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in 2010 that Iran plans to send astronauts into space in 2024. But, later he said that the issue had gone under a second study at a cabinet meeting and that the cabinet had decided to implement the plan in 2019, five years earlier than the date envisaged in the original plan. Omid (hope) was Iran's first research satellite that was designed for gathering information and testing equipment. After orbiting for three months, Omid successfully completed its mission without any problem. It completed more than 700 orbits over seven weeks and reentered the Earth's atmosphere on April 25, 2009. After launching Omid, Tehran unveiled three new satellites called Tolou, Mesbah II and Navid, respectively. Iran has also unveiled its latest achievements in designing and producing satellite carriers very recently. A new generation of home-made satellites and a new satellite carrier called Simorgh (Phoenix) were among the latest achievements unveiled by Iran's aerospace industries. The milk-bottle shaped rocket is equipped to carry a 60-kilogram (132-pound) satellite 500 kilometers (310 miles) into orbit. The 27-meter (90 foot) tall multi-stage rocket weighs 85 tons and its liquid fuel propulsion system has a thrust of up to 143 tons. Iran is one of the 24 founding members of the United Nations' Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), which was set up in 1959.