Ali Jafarabadi, the commander of the space division of Islamic Revolution Guards Corp's Aerospace Force, remarked in a televised interview on Monday night, noting that Iran is the fourth country after the United States, China, and Russia to manufacture a fully homegrown satellite with solid fuel/propellant.
Pointing to the successful launch of a homegrown satellite into a low Earth orbit (LEO) on Saturday, Jafarabadi said that the IRGC is ready to launch other countries’ satellites into orbit as well.
The satellite, named Sorayya meaning Pleiades in Persian, was placed into orbit using domestically-made carrier Qaem 100. It can carry objects weighing up to 100kg. The Sorayya satellite weighs 50kg.
A day after the launch, Iran’s satellite monitoring stations received signals from the Sorayya satellite as well as telemetry data concerning the state of energy supply, automatic positioning, communication and control, and processing systems.
MNA/IRN