Iran to retrieve Mesbah-1 satellite from Italy

A senior Iranian aerospace official has expressed Iran's readiness to use available means to recover its low earth orbit Mesbah-1 (Lantern) telecommunication satellite from Italy, Press TV reported.

The head of Iranian Space Agency (ISA), Hamid Fazeli, told ISNA news agency on Tuesday that Italy has refused to hand over the USD10-million satellite to Iran under the pretext of UN Security Council resolutions slapped against the Islamic Republic.

He pointed out that Tehran has started consultations with Italian authorities in order to retrieve the satellite.

Italy agreed to assist Iran in the building and launch of Mesbah-1 satellite in February 2003. At that time, the first phase of the project, which resulted in the completion of a laboratory model of the satellite, had been completed.

Iran's Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and the Italian company, Carlo Gavazzi Space, were jointly involved in the project.

In February 2004, it was announced that the laboratory model of Mesbah-1 would be upgraded.

Russia later agreed to launch a Kosmos-3M carrier rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, located 800 kilometers (497 miles) north of the capital Moscow, in September 2005 to put the Iranian satellite, together with a Russian and seven foreign microsatellites, into orbit.

Mesbah-1 satellite weighs 75 kilograms and is designed to circle the Earth 14 times a day. The satellite is expected to operate for a period of three years, and to broadcast on VHF and UHF frequencies.

The satellite was never launched as both Russia and Italy refused to cooperate with Iran on space projects. Tehran subsequently replaced Mesbah-1 project with indigenous Mesbah-2, which is expected to be launched in 2011.

Iranian space officials maintain that an indigenous satellite carrier can launch Mesbah-1 satellite once it is in possession of the country.

Iran launched its first domestically manufactured satellite, Omid (Hope), on a home-built Safir-2 rocket on February 2, 2009.


/Trend/