TEHRAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2020) Iran will attempt to launch the Zafar satellite again in May or June this year, after an unsuccessful launch attempt, the country's Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi has announced.
On Sunday, the Simorgh launch vehicle was able to blast off with the Zafar satellite but failed to gain the necessary speed to put the satellite into orbit.
"The launch of the Zafar-2 satellite will possibly be carried out in the month of Xordad [corresponds to late May - late June]," Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi said as quoted on the official website of the ministry.
At the end of October 2019, Jahromi said that Iran was planning to have new satellites launched into Earth's orbit by the end of the current Iranian Calendar year, which falls on March 19. In January, the minister said Iran had prepared at least six satellites to be launched into space.
In January 2019, Iran failed to launch several satellites into orbit. A number of countries, including the United States, are concerned with Tehran's rocket launches, claiming that they violate United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which calls upon Iran to refrain from developing ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. The Iranian Foreign Ministry insists that the country's rocket launches do not violate the resolution.
