''Sina-1'' ( fa, سینا ۱) is the first

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian

artificial satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisoto ...

, launched at 6:52 UTC October 28, 2005 on board a Cosmos-3M Russian launch vehicle from the

Plesetsk Cosmodrome Plesetsk Cosmodrome ( rus, Космодром «Плесецк», r=Kosmodrom "Plesetsk", p=kəsmɐˈdrom plʲɪˈsʲet͡sk) is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 ...

. The rocket was also carrying a Russian military Mozhayets-5 satellite, a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

China-DMC, a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

TopSat TopSat (Tactical Operational Satellite, also known as TopSat 1 and TacSat 0) is a British Earth observation satellite, currently in Low Earth Orbit. The nanosatellite was launched in October 2005 alongside the Beijing-1 Disaster Monitoring Con ...

, a European Space Agency SSETI Express (Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative-Express), a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

nCube nCUBE was a series of parallel computing computers from the company of the same name. Early generations of the hardware used a custom microprocessor. With its final generations of servers, nCUBE no longer designed custom microprocessors for mach ...

, a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

UWE-1 UWE-1 (Universität Würzburg's Experimentalsatellit-1) was one of three CubeSats built by students of the University of Würzburg, launched on 27 October 2005 as part of the European Space Agency's SSETI Express mission from Plesetsk in Rus ...

, and a Japanese XI-V. Sina-1

Satellite Catalog Number The Satellite Catalog Number (SATCAT, also known as NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense) Catalog Number, NORAD ID, USSPACECOM object number or simply catalog number, among similar variants) is a sequential nine-digit number assigned by the Un ...

or USSPACECOM object number is 28893 . In 2003, then-Defense Minister Admiral

Ali Shamkhani Ali Shamkhani (Persian: , born 29 September 1955) is an Iranian two-star general. He is the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran. Early life and education Shamkhani was born on 29 September 1955 in Ahvaz, Khuzestan. His fam ...

announced that Iran would launch its first satellite on a locally produced launch vehicle within eighteen months. The plan was to develop a booster based on the

Shahab-3 The Shahab-3 ( fa, شهاب ۳, Šahâb 3; meaning "meteor-3") is a liquid-propelled medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) developed by Iran and based on the North Korean Nodong-1. The Shahab-3 has a range of ; a MRBM variant can now reach (ca ...

medium-range ballistic missile. When difficulties arose with indigenous booster development, the

Iranian Institute of Applied Research Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

turned to the Omsk-based Russian company Polyot. Polyot provided the launch services aboard the

Kosmos-3M The Kosmos-3M (russian: Космос-3М meaning "''Cosmos''", GRAU index 11K65M) was a Russian space launch vehicle, member of the Kosmos rocket family. It was a liquid-fueled two-stage launch vehicle, first launched in 1967 and with over 42 ...

rocket and also built the satellite itself. The costs of the satellite was sited as US$15 million.

The satellite

The

Iranian Space Agency The Iranian Space Agency (ISA, Persian: ''Sāzmān-e Fazāi-ye Irān'') is Iran's governmental space agency. Iran became an orbital-launch-capable nation in 2009. Iran is one of the 24 founding members of the United Nations Committee on th ...

had for many years said they were on the verge of sending their first satellite into orbit, finally leading to the launch of ''Sina-1'', a satellite for telecommunications and Earth-imaging research purposes. The

miniaturized Miniaturization ( Br.Eng.: ''Miniaturisation'') is the trend to manufacture ever smaller mechanical, optical and electronic products and devices. Examples include miniaturization of mobile phones, computers and vehicle engine downsizing. In ele ...

170-kilogram reconnaissance satellite was put into a sun-synchronous near-

polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of about ...

and will image the surface with a 50 m (pan) with 50 km swath and 250 m resolution of MSS with 500 km swath resolution.

The future

Iran has plans for the construction of five more Iranian satellites of which three are scheduled to be launched over the next three years. In July 2005, Iran's Deputy Telecom Minister Ahmad Talebzadeh said that Iran's next satellite, '' Mesbah'', is ready for launch. ''Mesbah'', similar to ''Sina-1'', is a reconnaissance satellite which will be used to monitor natural phenomena on Iran's territory. This satellite will most likely be launched on an indigenous rocket. Iranian officials were originally going to use the recently cancelled

Shahab-4 The Shahab-4 ( fa, شهاب ۴, meaning "Meteor-4") (a.k.a. IRIS) was an unbuilt Iranian rocket, derived from the Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile. According to Iran it was intended to be a space launch vehicle, after a slip by the Defense ...

missile to carry out the process of launching satellites into space. Instead,

IRIS Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

, an advanced model of the Ghadr-110 IRBM missile, will be used. In January 2005, Iran and a Russian firm sealed a $132 million deal to build a telecommunication satellite called

Zohreh Zohreh (Persian: زهره, Arabic:الزهرة) is a Persian female given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well ...

(''

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

''). The launch of Zohreh is planned in the next two years.

Sources

Iran's No Longer Moscow's Satellite
- ''

Kommersant ''Kommersant'' (russian: Коммерсантъ, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia ...

References

External links

Real Time Tracking of Sina-1
{{Orbital launches in 2005 Reconnaissance satellites of Iran Satellites orbiting Earth Spacecraft launched in 2005 First artificial satellites of a country

The satellite

The future

See also

Sources

References

External links