Iranian Satellite Makes Successful Re-entry into Atmosphere

Iran's Rasad satellite accomplished its mission and made a successful reentry into the atmosphere. The announcement was made by Director of Iran's Space Agency Hamid Fazeli. Fazeli said Rasad (Observation) was designed to orbit the Earth for about 6 to 7 weeks, adding that the satellite split up when entering the Earth's atmosphere due to its low weight, high temperature and speed. He further stressed that all the objectives behind sending the satellite into space have been achieved. On June 17, Iran successfully launched its second domestically manufactured Rasad satellite into orbit. Rasa was launched on the back of a Safir satellite carrier and reached orbit successfully. Rasad which weighs 15.3 kilograms and was designed to be launched into the 260 kilometer orbit of the Earth rotated around the Earth 15 times in 24 hours. Rasad's mission was establishing contact with Earth stations, obtaining orders from those stations, image taking from the Earth, and dispatching those images along with telemetry information back to the Earth stations. The topology and structure of the earth stations of Rasad satellite, too, have been designed to provide the possibility for maximum access to Rasad through them, obtaining information from it, and forwarding commands to it at ease for the operators in charge. Iran has recently taken wide strides in aerospace. The country sent the first biocapsule of living creatures into space in February, using its home-made Kavoshgar-3 (Explorer-3) carrier. Iran announced in February that it planned to unveil and send two recently-built satellites into space in the near future. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had also earlier announced that the country plans to send a home-made measurement satellite into orbit in the near future. "Iran's measurement satellite will be launched into space from an Iranian launch-pad and will have an Iranian exchange station and control station," Iranian president said late 2010. Ahmadinejad further noted Iran's plans for sending astronauts into space in 2024, and said that the issue had gone under a second study at a cabinet meeting and that the cabinet had decided to implement the plan in 2019, five years earlier than the date envisaged in the original plan. Omid (hope) was Iran's first research satellite that was designed for gathering information and testing equipment. After orbiting for three months, Omid successfully completed its mission without any problem. It completed more than 700 orbits over seven weeks and reentered the Earth's atmosphere on April 25, 2009. After launching Omid, Tehran unveiled three new satellites called Tolou, Mesbah II and Navid, respectively. Iran has also unveiled its latest achievements in designing and producing satellite carriers very recently. A new generation of home-made satellites and a new satellite carrier called Simorgh (Phoenix) were among the latest achievements unveiled by Iran's aerospace industries. The milk-bottle shaped rocket is equipped to carry a 60-kilogram (132-pound) satellite 500 kilometers (310 miles) into orbit. The 27-meter (90 foot) tall multi-stage rocket weighs 85 tons and its liquid fuel propulsion system has a thrust of up to 143 tons. Iran is one of the 24 founding members of the United Nations' Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), which was set up in 1959.