Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi has announced that the country will launch two new Iran-made satellites by March 2011, Press TV reports.
"Two satellites named 'Fajr' and 'Rasad' will be launched into space by the end of the [current Iranian] year," Vahidi said on Saturday.
"These satellites are quite different from previous ones and are able to stay in space longer," the Iranian defense chief added.
Iran launched its first domestically-produced satellite, Omid, in 2009. At the moment only eight countries of the world have launched domestically-made satellites into orbit.
Iran also announced in early December that it was going to launch its first manned mission into space.
“The initial steps for the plan have been taken, and the study phase on the definition of subsystems, sub-projects, costs, and what projects need to be developed toward that end, has been conducted, which needs to be submitted to the Supreme Council on Space,” the Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister Reza Taqipour said.
Iran opened its first major space center in 2008 by launching the first Iranian rocket, Explorer-1, into space.
