Tehran, Nov 28 (FN Bureau) Iran plans to launch five new satellites into space by the end of the Iranian calendar year, March 20, 2024, including two launches by the defense ministry and one foreign satellite, Iranian Communications Minister Eisa Zarepour said on Tuesday. “By the end of the year, five new satellites will be put into Earth’s orbit … We will have two satellite launches by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC], two launches by the defense ministry and one launch of a foreign satellite, a total of five satellites will be put into orbit,” the Tasnim news agency quoted Zarepour as saying.
On Monday, the head of the Iranian Space Agency, Hassan Salarieh, said that specialists from one of Iran’s research centers had prepared a bio-capsule for launch into space. In October, Zarepour said the country would conduct the first tests of a bio-capsule designed to send astronauts into space in the next month or two, adding that Iran was working to send a man into space in the next five years. The month before, he said the IRGC air force had successfully launched the third military satellite Nur-3 into orbit. It was later revealed that Iran plans to launch two more satellites into orbit by the end of March 2024.