Iran to unveil home-made satellite: report

TEHRAN - Iran Space Agency (ISA) has announced that it will unveil a new home-made satellite in February, Tehran Times daily reported on Sunday.

Director of ISA, Hamid Fazeli, said Saturday that a new domestically-manufactured satellite, named the Nahid, will be unveiled on February 2, 2013, which is Iran's National Space Technology Day, according to the report.

"The project to complete the satellite is going well, and we hope that the satellite will be unveiled on National Space Technology Day," Fazeli said, adding that it is more likely that Fajr (Dawn) and Sharifsat satellites will be sent into space by the end of the current Iranian calendar year, which ends on March 20.

The Iranian official did not elaborate on the technology and mission of the Iranian satellites.

According to the report, the Fajr is the first Iranian satellite that will be put into orbit. It is a reconnaissance satellite powered by solar energy.

On Wednesday, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said that Iran was to unveil new space achievements soon.

Vahidi told reporters that the unveiling ceremony would take place on February 2, Iran's National Space Technology Day.

In June, the defense minister said Iran's new space center, named Imam Khomeini Space Center, would be launched in the future and the Iranian scientists and experts from the Aerospace Industry Organization of the Defense Ministry would send into orbit new generation of the Islamic republic's satellites from the center.

As the first step, Vahidi said, the Dawn satellite would be launched into orbit from the Imam Khomeini Space Center.

Iran, a founding member of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, launched its first domestically-made data-processing satellite, the Omid (Hope), into space in 2009.

Iran frequently says that it will push ahead with its space program in the coming years.