President Ahmadinejad said Iran is working on a new three-stage rocket to carry a satellite 1,000 kilometres into space, Fars news agency reported on Thursday.
"The country's scientists are working on a three-stage rocket that will take us to 1,000 kilometres," Ahmadinejad told a local television in the western city of Hamedan.
He said the rocket's engines would have a thrust of between 120 and 140 tons, four times greater than the rocket thrust of the Safir which was used to launch the Omid satellite into space in February 2009.
"Last time, we sent a satellite to 250 kilometres ... Next year it will be sent to 700 kilometres, and the year after that to 1,000 kilometres," he said.
It is assumed the 700 km flight scheduled for next year refers to the launch goal and date for the Simorgh rocket.
This is a sound technical breakthrough as Iran has mastered the booster rocket technology with solid fuel propellent. This is perhaps the dual use Shahab-4 with 3 stages. It also confirms Iranians can even produce the engines. Considering the vast amount of resources allocated to the missile and space programs it appears that Iranian engineers and scientists are on a accelerated learning-curve and have moved into innovation and it certainly did not take them years beyond their intended design development cycle for completing launch vehicles mated with booster rocket engine technology.
ReplyDeleteEvery successful Iranian missile (rocket) launch has created opportunities for refining and advancing the existing designs. This is indeed a great achievement and technical breakthrough for Iran. It also reflects glowingly on the skills and capabilities of Iranian aeronautical and space infrastructure.
when you have mastered the 2 staged tech., then sky is the limit.
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