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Kian Parsi ‎

In Bahman [January-February] of last year, in a highly advertised television program, ‎Ahmadinejad made a “happy announcement” about Iran’s space program, announcing the ‎launch of a new project to build satellite-carrying rockets named “Safeer” (emissary in ‎Persian).‎

The rocket was introduced as a research rocket capable of measuring relevant ‎environmental factors for the launching of the satellite. The Islamic Republic’s Defense ‎Minister announced that an Iranian-made satellite named “Omid” (hope in Persian) ‎would be launched by an Iranian-made rocket into the space in the near future, from an ‎Iranian space station. ‎

A Project That Was Stopped by Ahmadinejad Government ‎

A senior space scientist told Rooz that Ahmadinejad’s administration should not be given ‎credit for the space exploration project. The project had begun during previous ‎administrations and was about to become operational before it was almost halted to the ‎ground by the Ahmadineajd administration. According to this senior expert, claims made ‎by Iran about the advanced state of its space program are baseless and targeted for ‎domestic propaganda purposes only.‎

There are no records of design and production of satellites at Iranian ministries prior to ‎‎1996. During that year a number of researchers from the Industrial and Scientific ‎Research Foundation (affiliated to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology) ‎were given the task of launching a space project. A plan to design and manufacture the ‎research satellite “Mesbah” was drawn up and related research projects began. ‎

Because of the project’s high cost, which was beyond the Foundation’s budget, no ‎significant breakthroughs were initially made. In 1997 when Khatami became president ‎it was decided that the goal should be pursued in a joint venture with the Ministry of ‎Communications and Information Technology (formerly, Post and Telegraph and ‎Telephone). On June 27, 1998, an agreement was reached between the two ministries, ‎and the project to build “Mesbah” entered a new phase. ‎

Finally, in the summer of 2005, the project to build this satellite, which cost about 10 ‎billion tomans (close to $10 million), was completed and on Auguest 3, 2006, the satellite ‎was displayed for the press. The satellite was then sent to Italy for final tests and in ‎December of 2005 it was transported to Russia to be launched into space aboard a ‎Cosmos rocket. ‎

Unfortunately, however, with a change in the administration in Tehran and the coming to ‎power of Ahmadinejad, for reasons that are not entirely clear, the Iranian satellite was ‎never launched. So the fruits of years of research by Iranian scientists and the ‎expenditure of billions of tomans were forgotten and put to waste by Ahmadinejad’s ‎administration. ‎

Today, as Ahmadinejad’s government continues its life, the launching of “Mesbah” ‎satellite is on hold and no agreement has been finalized to build satellite “Zohreh.” ‎Nevertheless, the media wing of the Ahmadinejad’s administration boasts the ‎administration’s non-existent space successes. More interestingly, the administration has ‎failed to provide any reliable technical data about the satellites often referred to by ‎government officials (including important technical parameters).‎

According to this senior expert who spoke to Rooz, it is for this reason that the ‎administration is announcing plans to build a “Satellite carrying rocket” in Iran, which is ‎another strange announcement by the ninth administration. ‎