Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a recent ceremony marking the beginning of Word Space Week in Tehran, Azari Jahromi said the orbital slots can be reserved for two years and added each country can launch a satellite into the orbits reserved earlier.
The Iranian minister went on saying under the previous government, Iran couldn’t reserve any orbital slot due to the international sanctions imposed on the country. “But today, we have managed to reserve five orbital slots,” he said, as quoted by the Mehr News Agency.
He went on saying that Iran is already using some reserved slots for exchanging sound, image and data through fixed frequencies.
“We have no technical problem in this field. Today, efforts are underway to launch new satellites into the newly-reserved orbital slots. To this end, we are planning to establish new cooperation with our foreign partners to turn the orbital slots into international operators for launching and using satellites,” he noted.
No Need for Satellite Communications in Mountainous Regions
He further referred to the foreign satellites’ operations for offering phone services in the mountainous regions and said, “Today, only certain organizations in Iran like the Iranian Red Crescent Society and emergency services are allowed to use the satellite services,” he noted.
Azari Jahromi also said the entities’ operations are certificated by the Regulatory Organization for commercial purposes. “But since our country doesn’t need such services, offering them in the mountainous regions have no economic justification,” he said.
Iran to Develop Strategic Plan for Offering Space Services by Next 3 Months
Azari Jahromi stressed the necessity of using space technologies in people’s daily lives to save money and said, ”About one month ago, we sent our request for developing a strategic plan in this field to the Head of the Space Agency and asked him to provide us with a draft plan by the next three months.”
Elsewhere in his statements, he said the new plan is expected to highlight the profitable projects as well as the projects which are expected to end up in the interest of the daily lives of people. “Based on the plan, the ministry of information and communications technology will finance the projects properly,” he said.
In response to a question on the new edition of the country’s space development program, he said the new edition does not stand in contradiction with the 10-year space program drafted many times in the past years. “The two programs complete each other,” he said.
He called on the space elites in the country to share their insights into the field. “The Iranian scientists have managed to put together a satellite capable of remaining into the space for three years,” he said.
