Tehran, Feb 2 Iran on Sunday unveiled three new domestically developed satellites in the Iranian capital Tehran to mark its National Space Technology Day, media reported.
The satellites, namely Navak-1, Pars-2, and an upgraded model of Pars-1, were unveiled in a ceremony attended by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Minister of Information and Communications Technology Seyyed Sattar Hashemi, as well as several cabinet members, officials, and military commanders, the report said.
Developed by the Iranian Space Research Centre, the Navak-1 communications satellite is designed to test the function of an improved version of the homegrown Simorgh launch vehicle soon.
The carrier is expected to put the satellite into an elliptic orbit, according to official news agency IRNA.
Weighing nearly 34 kg, Navak-1 is equipped with a dosimetry payload to measure cosmic rays, the report said, adding the satellite has a magnetometer sensor to measure the Earth's electromagnetic field.
According to IRNA, the Pars-2 remote-sensing satellite weighs 150 kg and is equipped with two imaging payloads with two different homegrown linear position sensors.
The satellite features a propeller and is capable of carrying out diverse missions in the fields of environmental monitoring, forestry, natural disaster response, and urban management.
The upgraded model of the Pars-1 remote-sensing satellite, weighing under 150 kg, has three imaging payloads: multispectral, short-wave infrared, and thermal infrared, according to IRNA.
The satellite is powered by energy generated from its gallium arsenide solar cells, according to the report.
The first model of the satellite, weighing 134 kg, was launched on February 29, 2024, aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny space base.
Speaking at another ceremony in Tehran on Sunday to mark the occasion, Iranian Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said the country plans to conduct two space launches in the coming weeks, before the end of the current Iranian calendar year on March 20.
On September 27, 2024, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force successfully launched the homegrown imaging satellite Nour-3 into orbit.
Nour-3 (Light-3) was launched by satellite carrier Qased (Messenger) and placed into an orbit 450 km (280 miles) above the Earth's surface.
Earlier in the year, Iran successfully sent the homegrown Mahda research satellite, along with two research cargoes, to space onboard the domestically developed Simorgh (Phoenix) satellite launch vehicle (SLV).
Mahda weighs 32 kg and its primary task is to test the satellite-related subsystems, verify the function of Simorgh SLV in dispensing space cargoes, and evaluate the performance of new designs and the reliability of indigenous technologies in space.
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