TEHRAN, February 4 (RIA Novosti) - Iran's first
indigenous satellite will stay in orbit for at least two months
as it sends processed technical data back to Earth, the head of
the Iran Aerospace Organization said on Wednesday.
An Iranian carrier rocket, Safir-2, successfully put the
Omid (Hope) communications satellite into a low orbit late on
Monday.
"Considering the limited service life of the battery, the
satellite will operate for at least two months. Monitoring
stations built by Iranian specialists will maintain contact
with the satellite during this period," Reza Taqipour said.
The U.S., France, Israel, and the U.K. have already
expressed concern over the recent Iranian launch. They have
said that Tehran may be developing long-range ballistic missile
technology that could be used to launch nuclear weapons. Iran
insists that its space program is of an entirely peaceful
nature.
Iran's space officials earlier said they plan to put a
"series of satellites" into space by 2010 to aid natural
disaster management programs and improve telecommunications.
While Omid is Iran's first domestically-built satellite, a
previous satellite, Sinah-1, was built and launched for Tehran
by Russia in 2005.
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