ICT Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi Monday evening wrote on Twitter, “Going to have some good news, guess what?” The Tweet went viral and prompted 4,000 replies in five hours.
Early morning Tuesday, Jahromi said in another Twitter post, “I would have liked to make you happy with some good news, but sometimes life does not go as expected.” He added that the rocket, Safir, long used for satellite launches, had failed in the third stage of the launch, falling short of placing its payload into the correct orbit. He did not elaborate.
The satellite Payam (message in Persian), a micro-class 100kg non-military satellite was to orbit about 500-600 km above Earth's surface and conduct imagery and telecommunication tasks, Financial Tribune reported.
Jahromi said, “We should not come up short or stop … with an increased effort we will succeed in putting Dousti into orbit.”
Dousti (friendship in Persian) is a micro-class 52kg satellite which will orbit the Earth at altitudes between 250km and 310km.
On Monday President Hassan Rouhani told a public gathering during his visit to Golestan Province, “A satellite-carrier rocket manufactured by Iranian scientists will soon place the Payam satellite into orbit.”
“The satellite will monitor weather, agriculture-related activities, territorial waters and forests, and relay communications on a regular basis.”
The president said Payam is the first satellite that is supposed to have a long lifespan. “In the past, we sent several research satellites into space, but when this satellite is launched, it will send information on territorial activities every day.”
Rouhani had said another satellite, Dousti, will also be launched in the coming weeks, but did not offer details.
Iran launched its first domestically built satellite, Omid (hope) on the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in 2009.