Iranian Space Research Center handed over Pars1 satellite to Iranian Space Agency on Saturday after the satellite successfully completed all tests.
The handover was conducted in a ceremony attended by the head of ISRC, Hossein Samimi, and ISA chief, Morteza Barari, Mehr News reported.
The center and the agency are both affiliated with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies.
Barari said the project was completed on time, despite all the hurdles created by Covid-19.
Pars1 is one of the most advanced remote-sensing satellites made by Iran.
"Engineers faced many challenges in developing Pars1. However, using localized technologies, we overcame all the challenges,” he said.
Iran had successfully launched a remote-sensing satellite, Navid, in 2012. The experimental Earth observation satellite was developed by Iran University of Science and Technology researchers.
The satellite, which took high-resolution images of Earth, could be used for observing natural phenomena.
It was placed into orbit by Iran-made Safir carrier rocket on Feb. 3, 2012. After flying 250 kilometers above the Earth for almost two months, Navid reentered the atmosphere on April 1, 2012.
Barari said, “Last year, we tried to put the satellite Payam into orbit, 500 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. However, due to some complications, including a sharp surge in temperature [during the launch], the mission did not succeed.”
He noted that another satellite, Dousti, was also launched in the last Iranian year (March 2018-19) without success.
However, Barari believes that every step Iran takes toward developing space technologies will provide local scientists with invaluable insight.
“After last year’s two launches, a committee was set up to determine the shortcomings of those projects. All those problems have been resolved,” he said.
Dousti (meaning friendship in Persian) was a locally-made micro-class 52-kg satellite placed into orbit at an altitude of 250-310 km. It reportedly had a spatial resolution of 10 meters.
