Iran plans to launch a new satellite called Rasad 1 in late August, according to Iran’s Mehr News Agency.
The July 7 story quotes Iranian Telecommunications Minister Reza Taghipour saying the satellite would be launched during the last week of August “on the back of a domestic carrier.”
Iran launched its first satellite, the Omid store-and-forward telecommunications spacecraft, in February 2009. This past February, Iran announced it had launched into low Earth orbit a capsule containing live animals. Following that launch, the Iranian Aerospace Organization unveiled, during a ceremony attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, plans to launch three new telecommunications satellites. Those satellites were identified as Navid, Toulou and Mesbah 2, according to state-run media reports.
