Omid: Iran satellite by March 20

Iran's Space Agency (ISA) announced that the first domestically-built satellite of Iran called "Omid" (Hope) would be sent to the space by March 20.

In November, Iran successfully launched a space rocket "Kavosh 2" (Explorer 2), which after completing its mission, has returned to the earth. Iran launched a home-made satellite-carrier rocket named Safir (Messenger) in August last year, arousing Western governments' concerns over its purpose that Iran is developing long-range ballistic missile technology which can be used to launch nuclear weapons.

Safir was Iran's first domestically made satellite carrier, which was capable of putting lightweight satellites into low earth orbit. The launch of Safir rocket is aimed to test remote sensing, satellite telemetry, and GIS technology as well as remote and ground station data processing.