Iran to launch 3 more satellites

Head of Iranian Space Agency (ISA) said Iran will launch three more satellites in space by the end of Iranian calendar year, ending on March 20, the state IRIB TV website said on Thursday.

Iran, on Wednesday, announced that it "successfully" put the Rasad (surveillance) satellite in the orbit to render images to the stations in the country.

Three satellites will be put in the space in August, in October and in February respectively, said ISA Head Hamid Fazeli.

He also added that Iran plans to launch its domestically-built satellite carrier, Kavoshgar 5 (Explorer5), into space in two months, the English language satellite Press TV reported on Thursday.

Kavoshgar 5 weighs 285 kg and will be launched at an altitude of 120 kilometres suborbital, he was quoted as saying.

Iran's Defense Minister, General Ahmad Vahidi, said Thursday that Iran plans to construct bigger and heavier satellites and satellite carriers in the future, semi-official Mehr agency reported.

The Rasad satellite launched on Wednesday weighs 15.3 kilograms and has been designed to be launched at 260 kilometers above the earth and will circle the earth 15 times in every 24 hours.

The Rasad satellite project was the result of cooperation between the aerospace organization and Malek Ashtar University both affiliated to Iran's ministry of defense and Iranian Space Agency, Press TV said.

The Rasad, the country's first imaging satellite, has all the features of big satellite despite its small dimensions under the category of micro-satellites.