Iran Space Center Building Closer Ties to Academia

Iran Space Research Center is set to expand collaboration with academia and increase investment in the sector.

The center's research deputy, Saeed Shakhesi, said more than 100 research projects have been approved to be conducted in collaboration with major universities, ISRC’s official website reported.

Centers of higher learning collaborating with the research center include the University of Tehran, Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology and the Khaje Nasir Toosi University of Technology as well as several other prominent universities in Isfahan, Shiraz, and Tabriz.

ISRC has allocated 50 billion rials ($1.25 million) to the projects.

According to the official, several new projects will be unveiled by the end of the current fiscal in March. ISRC has close ties to the Iranian Space Agency helping propel aerospace projects forward.

In September ISRC head Fathollah Ommi said the center is considering the possibility of launching a space program with an astronaut aboard a spacecraft.

The program will be carried out in two phases; the first involves a sub-orbital spaceflight and the second (supposedly operational by 2025) will be an orbit launch.