Iranian President Hassan Rouhani struck a defiant note on 11 January 2019 when he countered the U.S. threat of consequences should his government carry out the launch of two satellites using an Iranian satellite launch vehicle.
Read More »Iran Reconsiders Human Spaceflight Policy, Seeks to Send Humans to Space by 2025
The head of Iran’s Astronautics Research Institute (ARI), Fathollah Ommi, has stated that Iran is “conducting research to send a man to space,” with the intent to be able to act on this research within eight years. Iran’s human spaceflight programme has had a series of fits and starts, most …
Read More »Mahmoud Vaezi, Iranian Minister Responsible for Space, To Step Down
The Iranian government minister responsible for the space portfolio has stated that he will step down before the start of President Hassan Rouhani’s second term. Mahmoud Vaezi, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, has been responsible for Iran Space Agency activities as well as negotiations with Russia and other …
Read More »Iran Abandons Its Human Spaceflight Ambitions
In an unsurprising move, the Iranian government has officially abandoned Tehran’s ambitions to send humans into space. According to Iranian news agency ILNA, Mohammad Homayoun Sadr, the deputy head of the Iran Space Agency (ISA), made the announcement citing the extremely steep cost of a human spaceflight programme that he …
Read More »Iranian General Claims US Deterred Launch of Space Launch Vehicle
In a bizarre statement that will likely be studied for some time by strategic analysts seeking to understand how deterrence works, a senior officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) publicly announced that threats from the United States forced Iranian leadership to shelve plans to launch a space launch …
Read More »Iran’s endless war against private satellite TV nets over 713,000 dishes since early 2016
Tehran’s police chief, General Lofti, told an audience at a Chastity and Hijab meeting held on 13 November 2016, that Iranian authorities have seized 713,546 satellite dishes, 923,299 low-noise block downconverters (LNB’s) and 10,766 satellite receivers over the past seven months. Further, General Lofti informed his audience that authorities have …
Read More »Still waiting to launch: Iran’s space programme and the ‘Resistance Economy’
Remember Iran’s potential as a significant regional player in space? So do we, but as ThorGroup’s Chairman Dr. John B. Sheldon points out, that potential will mean nothing without significant economic and political reform from Tehran. So far, though, there is little sign that much-needed reform is in the offing …
Read More »President Rouhani names new members to Iran’s Supreme Council of Space
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani appointed three new members to the Supreme Council of Space – the supreme space policy-making body in Iran – on 14 August 2016. The three individuals appointed to the Supreme Council of Space are Elham Aminzadeh, Mostafa Safavi-Homami and Hassan Shafti. Each appointment lasts for four …
Read More »Iran, Azerbaijan cement space cooperation agreement
Iranian and Azerbaijani officials signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for space cooperation between the two countries, days before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visits the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, on 8 August 2016. Iranian Minister for Communication and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi and Azerbaijani Minister Communications and High Technologies Ramin Namigoglu …
Read More »Iran post-sanctions: heavenly ambitions unleashed?
The country managed to develop one of the region’s foremost space programmes while being economically strangled by severe sanctions. Now that the heaviest shackles have been removed, what is Iran capable of? By John B. Sheldon Iran has maintained a space programme for more than 10 years, making it one …
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