Iran set to unveil new domestic satellite

Iran's space agency says it will unveil a domestically manufactured satellite named the Nahid in February on Iran's National Space Technology Day. "The project to complete the satellite is going well, and we hope that the satellite will be unveiled on National Space Technology Day" Feb. 2, Hamid Fazeli, director of the Iran Space Agency, said. The Nahid will join two other satellites -- Fjar (Dawn) and Sharifsat -- in Iran's space program although Fazeli did not elaborate on the technology and mission of any of them, China's official Xinhua news agency reported Sunday. The Fjar and Sharifsat satellites will be launched into space by the end of the current Iranian calendar year ending March 20, he said. The Fjar satellite would be launched into orbit from the new Imam Khomeini Space Center, Iranian Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said. Iran launched its first domestically made data-processing satellite, the Omid (Hope), in 2009.