Iran to Unveil 3 New Home-Made Satellites on Sunday

Iran is scheduled to unveil Navak telecommunications satellite, an upgraded version of the Pars 1 satellite, and the new Pars 2 satellite.

Navak which has been designed to enhance high-altitude telecommunications was built for testing communications in an elongated elliptical orbit, marking Iran’s first deployment of a satellite in such a trajectory.

The enhanced version of Pars 1 satellite incorporates significant improvements based on previous experience, while Pars 2 offers higher imaging accuracy, with an 8-meter resolution for color images and a 4-meter resolution for black-and-white images.

An exhibition displaying achievements in aerospace technology will also be held along with the unveiling ceremony and the Iranian president will tour the expo.

Earlier reports, in January, also said that an advanced version of the Kowsar satellite, named Kowsar 1.5, would be launched into the space in the first half of next Persian calendar year (to start on March 21).  

The Kowsar 1.5 satellite, the result of the efforts of the Iranian experts, is an upgraded version of the Kowsar and Hodhod satellites that were launched into space earlier this year. The two satellites play a key role in the development of precision agriculture with their remote sensing (Kowsar) and Internet of Things (Hodhod) missions.

“The combined version of the Kowsar and Hodhod missions, named Kowsar 1.5, will be launched in the first half of next year, and efforts are being made to design and produce a system of these satellites by attracting capital,” Hossein Shahrabi, the managing director of a company active in designing and manufacturing light and low-cost satellites, was quoted by the Iranian Vice-Presidency for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy as saying.

Two domestically-manufactured Iranian satellites were successfully launched into space in November in a debut entrance by the country’s private sector in the space industry.

Kowsar and Hodhod were launched into orbit from the Vostochny spaceport in eastern Russia in November, using a Russian Soyuz satellite launcher.

The development marked the first triumphant attempt by the Islamic Republic’s private sector towards production of satellites and their placement into orbit and was, therefore, deemed as an important and unprecedented step in the country’s space industry.

Kowsar is a remote-sensing satellite with the capability to capture high-resolution imagery for various purposes across the agricultural, natural resources, environmental, and crisis management fields among other areas.

Hodhod has, meanwhile, been described as a small-sized satellite with communication applications, including creation of communication networks and contributions to the Internet of Things (IoT).

The latter could be used towards provision of communication services in remote and inaccessible areas, where land communication networks are not available.

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