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Iranian space program gaining fresh momentum: Minister
Speaking on Wednesday at a meeting with experts and managers of the Iranian Space Research Institute, including Hassan Salarieh, head of the Iranian Space Agency (ISA), Sattar Hashemi praised the achievements of the space sector under the current administration, attributing progress to the efforts of specialists and experts in the field, Press TV reported. “The approach of the Ministry of Communications and the fourteenth administration toward the space industry is a strategic one, and this field has extensive capacities for the development of smart agriculture, water resource management, land management, and improving the quality of data-driven governance in the country,” Hashemi stressed.
The minister also highlighted the resilience of Iran’s space infrastructure during wartime conditions, describing continued operations as a significant achievement.
“The continuation of the country's space activities under difficult conditions is the result of the commitment, expertise, and round-the-clock efforts of colleagues in this field,” Hashemi added.
Referring to ongoing projects, he added that “the necessary planning is underway to place the ‘Pars 2’ satellite into orbit.”
Pars-2 is an advanced, domestically-developed highly-accurate and imaging satellite manufactured by ISA with the primary mission of Earth observation, remote sensing, and environmental monitoring.
Hashemi further stressed the importance of strengthening international and technological cooperation while rebuilding and restructuring the sector after recent challenges caused by the US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran.
In his remarks, Salarieh, the ISA’s chief, reaffirmed that space projects are continuing at high speed and rejected claims that the industry had been disrupted by war time conditions. “The projects in the space industry are being carried out at high speed. The damage inflicted during the Ramadan War does not mean that our space industry has stopped; the country's space industry is still operating,” he stressed.
Salarieh further emphasized the distributed nature of Iran’s space infrastructure, explaining that the system is not centralized in a way that would allow it to be halted by targeting a single site.