Iran plans to launch the first satellites in its new Soleimani constellation of narrowband satellites by the end of the Iranian year in March 2026, the head of the country’s space agency said.
Hassan Salarieh, head of the Iranian Space Agency, told the Tasnim news agency that the Soleimani constellation will be Iran’s first narrowband satellite network.
“In the initial phase, nearly 20 satellites will be built and placed in orbits with different inclinations to provide narrowband communications aimed at developing Internet of Things services,” he said.
The constellation is named after Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force - the foreign arm of the Revolutionary Guards -- who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.
According to Salarieh, test launches of prototype satellites will begin this year, with some placed in orbit to carry out preliminary checks.
The main production phase of the satellites will begin in 2025, with operational launches of the constellation expected to start in early 2026 and continue into 2027. “Technical challenges and delays are natural in the space industry,” he said, but added that progress so far was “satisfactory.”
The constellation is being developed by a consortium of government and private entities. Salarieh said design work began in late 2023, and that many subsystems and components are now under construction.
The announcement comes weeks after Iran launched its Nahid-2 telecommunications satellite aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Salarieh has since said a second version of Nahid-2 will be launched aboard Iran’s domestically developed Simorgh rocket, underlining Tehran’s efforts to expand its independent launch capacity.
Iran is also developing heavier launchers, including the Sarir and Soroush classes, and is expanding its Chabahar spaceport to reduce reliance on foreign facilities.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has separately conducted suborbital tests of its Qased satellite carrier, most recently in July, weeks after the 12-day war with Israel.
Western governments have repeatedly voiced concern over Iran’s satellite launches, warning that the same rocket technology can be used for ballistic missiles. Tehran says its space program is peaceful.
