Tehran, Iran, August 21
By Mehdi Sepahvand – Trend:
Low budget has deprived Iran from the chance to pursue its aerospace projects, so much so that only 10 percent of the plans have been carried out so far, according to Fathollah Emami, dean of the Aerospace Research Center of Iran.
“Right now all the center’s researchers can do is write ISI papers and design concepts,” he told ISNA news agency August 21.
The news comes at a time when the Islamic Republic has given “Priority A” to aerospace science development in its strategic mega plans.
The official said the center’s projects have been stopped since two years ago when Iran’s eighths space mission was launched, sending a monkey to the outer space.
“Iran’s aerospace technology is 60 years behind [the world],” he observed, noting that Russia send humans to space in 1963.
On the same day, Iran unveiled what it called its first home-made turbojet engine. The world’s first such engine was built in the 1930s.