Qualla: Iranian Space Agency: Reaching Orbit Against the Odds https://qualla.com/iranian-space-agency en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:32 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/n/q/2/iranian-space-agency-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Iranian Space Agency: Reaching Orbit Against the Odds https://qualla.com/iranian-space-agency Iranian Space Agency: Reaching Orbit Against the Odds: Introduction https://qualla.com/iranian-space-agency/ Photo credit STS115_Atlantis_undock_ISS.jpg: NASA derivative work: The High Fin Sperm Whale, Public domain. On February 2, 2009, a Safir rocket lifted off from a launch pad south of Semnan, carrying a small satellite called Omid - the Persian word for hope. When Omid reached orbit, Iran became the ninth country in history to place a domestically built satellite in space using its own launch vehicle. The achievement arrived six decades after Iran's space ambitions first stirred in the late 1940s, and it came not from a superpower's resources but from a country navigating international sanctions, political revolution, and the determined conviction that a nation of eighty million people deserved a place among the stars.

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Image: STS115_Atlantis_undock_ISS.jpg: NASA derivative work: The High Fin Sperm Whale | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/n/q/2/iranian-space-agency-wp/tnq2-iranian-space-agency-reaching-orbit-against-the-od-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Iranian Space Agency: Reaching Orbit Against the Odds: From Antenna to Orbit https://qualla.com/iranian-space-agency/ Photo credit STS115_Atlantis_undock_ISS.jpg: NASA derivative work: The High Fin Sperm Whale, Public domain. Iran's space journey began modestly. In 1960, the country joined the International Satellite Communications Organization and installed a satellite receiving antenna in Asadabad, Hamedan. By 1974, a Satellite Data Collection Office was processing imagery from early Landsat satelli...

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Image: STS115_Atlantis_undock_ISS.jpg: NASA derivative work: The High Fin Sperm Whale | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/n/q/2/iranian-space-agency-wp/tnq2-iranian-space-agency-reaching-orbit-against-the-od-from-antenna-to-orbit.mp3 0:06 2 full Iranian Space Agency: Reaching Orbit Against the Odds: The Rockets https://qualla.com/iranian-space-agency/ Photo credit STS115_Atlantis_undock_ISS.jpg: NASA derivative work: The High Fin Sperm Whale, Public domain. The Safir was Iran's first orbital-class launch vehicle: 22 meters tall, 1.25 meters in diameter, with two liquid-propellant stages generating enough thrust to loft a small satellite. It was the rocket that carried Omid to orbit. But the Safir was only the beginning. The Simorgh,...

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Image: STS115_Atlantis_undock_ISS.jpg: NASA derivative work: The High Fin Sperm Whale | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/n/q/2/iranian-space-agency-wp/tnq2-iranian-space-agency-reaching-orbit-against-the-od-the-rockets.mp3 0:06 3 full Iranian Space Agency: Reaching Orbit Against the Odds: Creatures Before Cosmonauts https://qualla.com/iranian-space-agency/ Photo credit STS115_Atlantis_undock_ISS.jpg: NASA derivative work: The High Fin Sperm Whale, Public domain. Before sending humans, Iran sent animals. On February 3, 2010, a Kavoshgar-3 rocket carried one rodent, two turtles, and several worms into sub-orbital space and returned them alive. The launch transmitted live video footage of the biological payload back to Earth. Iran became th...

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Image: STS115_Atlantis_undock_ISS.jpg: NASA derivative work: The High Fin Sperm Whale | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/n/q/2/iranian-space-agency-wp/tnq2-iranian-space-agency-reaching-orbit-against-the-od-creatures-before-cosmonauts.mp3 0:06 4 full Iranian Space Agency: Reaching Orbit Against the Odds: Launch Pads in the Desert https://qualla.com/iranian-space-agency/ Photo credit STS115_Atlantis_undock_ISS.jpg: NASA derivative work: The High Fin Sperm Whale, Public domain. Iran's main launch site sits near Shahrud, east of Tehran, where suborbital rockets have climbed into the sky above the Dasht-e-Kavir desert. A second site operates near Semnan, unveiled in February 2008 during the first Kavoshgar launch. The Semnan facility includes an undergrou...

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Image: STS115_Atlantis_undock_ISS.jpg: NASA derivative work: The High Fin Sperm Whale | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/n/q/2/iranian-space-agency-wp/tnq2-iranian-space-agency-reaching-orbit-against-the-od-launch-pads-in-the-desert.mp3 0:06 5 full Iranian Space Agency: Reaching Orbit Against the Odds: Controversy and Conviction https://qualla.com/iranian-space-agency/ Photo credit STS115_Atlantis_undock_ISS.jpg: NASA derivative work: The High Fin Sperm Whale, Public domain. Iran's space program has never existed in a vacuum - politically or diplomatically. The United States and Europe have condemned the program, arguing that the same rocket technology that places satellites in orbit can deliver warheads across continents. The Safir's heritage from t...

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Image: STS115_Atlantis_undock_ISS.jpg: NASA derivative work: The High Fin Sperm Whale | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/n/q/2/iranian-space-agency-wp/tnq2-iranian-space-agency-reaching-orbit-against-the-od-controversy-and-conviction.mp3 0:06 6 full