The Iranian Space Agency is Iran's governmental space agency. Space activities are directed by the Iranian Space Agency (ISA). It was established in 1974.The main launch site of the Iranian Space Agency is Emamshahr. Anousheh Ansari was the first Iranian in space.

History

Sinah-1, the first Iranian satellite, was designed in Iran and was built in Russia and launched by Roscosmos on October 28, 2005, on a Kosmos-3 booster rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, making Iran the 43rd country to possess its own satellite.

On February 4, 2008, Iran launched a sub-orbital rocket called Kavoshgar-1 (Explorer-1, in English).

A joint research satellite Environment 1 of Iran, China and Thailand was launched on a Chinese Long March 2C carrier rocket on September 6, 2008 aimed at boosting cooperation on natural disasters such as flooding, drought, typhoon, landslide and earthquake.

Omid satellite was Iran's first domestically made satellite and was launched on 2 February 2009 on a Safir rocket. The launch of Omid makes Iran the ninth country to develop an indigenous satellite launch capability. Omid means Hope in Persian. The 27 kg Omid satellite had the shape of a 40-centimeter (16 in) cube and was launched into an orbit with a 245.5 km perigee and 381.2 km apogee. Omid is a data-processing satellite for research and telecommunications for Iran's state television. The launch, which coincided with the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution was supervised by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The launch was verified by NASA the following day as a success. Its Satellite Catalog Number or USSPACECOM object number is 33506.

Animals in Space:  On February 3, 2010, ISA launched a Kavoshgar-3 rocket with one rodent, two turtles and several worms into sub-orbital space and returned them to Earth alive. The rocket was enabled to transfer electronic data and live footage back to Earth. The rat was named Helmz 1. The Iranian Aerospace Organization showed live video transmission of mini-environmental lab to enable further studies on the biological capsule. President Ahmadinejad said the new satellites demonstrate Iran's technological expertise and that it proved that Iran could 'defeat the West's domination in the scientific arena'. He also added, 'This is the first presence of animals in space launched by Iran. It's the start of bigger achievements'.

Iran to send man into space in 2017‎

In August 2010, President Ahmadinejad announced that Iran's first astronaut will be sent into space onboard an Iranian shuttle by 2017.

Rocket History

A sub-orbital test flight, named Kavoshgar-1 was conducted on February 4, 2008, as announced by state-run television. A launch on February 25, 2007, may also have been of the same type. The first flights carried instruments to measure the higher atmosphere. The rocket launched on February 4, 2008 was a liquid-propellant-driven rocket, probably a derivative of the Shahab-3, that reached an altitude of 200–250 km in space and successfully returned science data according to the Iranian News Agency.

Safir rocket conducted Iran's first orbital launch with the Omid satellite on 2 February 2009. SAFIR-2 is a two-stage launch vehicle and is 22m long with a diameter of 1.25m, weighing about 26 tonnes.

On February 19, 2008, Iran offered new information about the rocket and announced that Kavoshgar-1 used a two staged rocket. The first stage separated after 100 seconds and returned to earth with the help of a parachute. The second stage continued its ascent to the altitude of 200 kilometres. However it was not intended to reach orbital velocity.

Simorgh rocket is an Iranian expendable small-capacity orbital carrier rocket, which is scheduled to make its maiden flight in 2010/2011. It was unveiled by Iraninan President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on 3 February 2010, as part of celebrations of the first anniversary of the launch of Omid, the first indigenously-launched Iranian satellite.[
 

Anousheh Ansari

On September 18, 2006, a few days after her 40th birthday, she became the first Iranian in space. Ansari is the fourth overall self-funded space tourist, and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station. Her memoir, My Dream of Stars, co-written with Homer Hickam, was published by Palgrave-McMillan in 2010.

Did you know?

Iran expressed for the first time its intention to send a human to space during the summit of Soviet and Iranian Presidents at June 21, 1990. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev reached an agreement in principle with then-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to make joint Soviet-Iranian manned flights to Mir space station but this agreement was never realized after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Also see:

Space Women: Includes books on Anousheh Ansari

Links:

• Iranian Space Agency: Official Site

• Iran's Emerging Space Program

• Shahab-3D - Iran Missiles

• Iran sends mouse, worms, turtles into space: from msnbc (3 Feb 2010)

• Did Iran Just Rocket Creatures Into Space? Sure Seems So: By fastcompany.com (Feb 3, 2010) - Picture Source.