Iran launches domestically designed space tug

Iran’s two-stage Simorgh satellite carrier launched from a platform at the Imam Khomeini spaceport in the city of Semnan. PIC/AFP

Iran has launched a space tug domestically designed and manufactured by Iranian experts and technicians into space aboard a homegrown satellite launch vehicle (SLV), as per media reports.

The Saman-1, along with a CubeSat and a research payload, was sent into space using a Simorgh launcher from the Imam Khomeini Space Launch Terminal on Friday. With an apogee of 410 km and a perigee of 300 km, the payloads were placed in an orbit around the Earth. The Saman-1 system has been created to place satellites in higher orbits, lowering costs and removing the need for large launch vehicles with high fuel consumption. The space tug was test-launched in 2022.

Speaking about the system, Iran's space agency chief Hassan Salaryieh said that the system "means a quicker and smoother process of obtaining the orbital point synchronized with the Earth once a satellite elevates its orbital height from the geostationary orbit to the operational one".

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