Baku, Azerbaijan, May 19
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran will put a 1000- kilogram spacecraft into orbit by the end of the current year.
Mohammad Ebrahimi, head of Iran's Aerospace Research Institute, said the spacecraft can orbit at an altitude of 150-200 kilometers above the earth's surface, Iran's IRNA news agency reported on May 19.
The Iranian solar year starts on March 20.
"The spacecraft will have a combination of cylindrical and spherical modules," he noted. "The spacecraft will have an unmanned mission which will take about half an hour.
On May 4, Ebrahimi said that the country plans to launch a new generation of space explorers, which will jet-boost in higher altitudes compared to the previous rockets.
He added that Iran's Aerospace Research Institute has an orbital and suborbital project to send a living creature into space.
He said, "first we will send the living creature to suborbital space and then with the advancement of the technology, it would be sent orbital space and beyond; our ultimate goal is sending the first man from Iran to the space."