TEHRAN – Head of the Iranian Space Agency (ISA) Morteza Barari has saidthat Iran plans to launch three satellites in upcoming years.

“Following the implementation of the country’s second decade-long spacedevelopment program, three satellites are being developed to be ultimatelyput into orbit,” Barari, who is also Iran’s Deputy Minister ofCommunication and Information Technology, said on Sunday.

“The second decade-long space development program was initiated in 2016 andwill continue until 2025 with the development of space-relatedinfrastructure,” he added.

The ISA chief stressed that no country had assisted Iran in the developmentof satellites launched by the country so far, adding that the IslamicRepublic’s top universities had instead made good strategic and long-terminvestments in the field.

Iran’s indigenous satellite launch capabilities first made headlines whenthe first locally-built satellite, Omid (Hope), was launched in 2009.

The country also sent its first bio-capsule containing living creaturesinto space in February 2010, using a Kavoshgar-3 (Explorer-3) carrier.

In February 2015, the Islamic Republic placed its domestically-made Fajr(Dawn) satellite into orbit, which is capable of taking and transmittinghigh-quality photos to stations on Earth.

In January 2019, the domestically-built Payam (Message) satellite waslaunched into space with an aim to collect environmental information;however, technical problems that occurred during the final stage of thelaunch prevented the spacecraft from reaching orbit.

Speaking on Sunday, Barari noted that that the development of spacetechnology in Iran could lead to “major” developments in the country’seconomy, Press TV has reported.