Iran to launch 6 satellites by March 2024

TEHRAN: Iranian Deputy Defence Minister Amir Rastegari announced that the country is preparing six satellites to be launched by March 2024.

Rastegari made the remarks in an interview with the semi-official Tasnim news agency, which was published on Tuesday.

He said preparations were being made to launch an Iranian satellite constellation, expressing hope that IEI would be able to put into low Earth orbit two CubeSats and the homegrown Earth observation satellite Tolou-3 by March 2024, reports Xinhua news agency.

With a weight of 150 kg, Tolou-3 is Iran's first miniature satellite.

It is capable of taking black-and-white photos with a five-meter spatial resolution and coloured photos with a 10-meter resolution, said Rastegari.

Rastegari noted that Iran Electronics Industries (IEI) had carried out good cooperation with the Iranian Space Agency and Russia.

He added that IEI is negotiating with the Aerospace Industries Organization of Iran's Defence Ministry and Russia to accelerate the launch of domestic satellites into space.

In August 2022, Iran successfully launched the Khayyam satellite into space from the Baikonur space station in Kazakhstan by Russia's Soyuz satellite carrier rocket.