Three Iranian satellites will be launched aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome on December 28, Iran’s Nour news agency reported, marking another step in Tehran’s expanding space program.
Nour News, linked to Iran's security establishment, said the satellites will support agriculture, natural resources management and environmental monitoring. Russia last carried an Iranian-made telecommunications satellite into orbit in July.
The announcement follows comments last month by Hassan Salarieh, head of the Iranian Space Agency, who said Iran is preparing to launch three Earth-observation satellites — Zafar-2, Paya and a new batch of Kosar imaging satellites — and conduct its first test launch from the new Chabahar Space Center.
Salarieh said Iran had advanced to developing satellites with imaging resolutions of one meter and below, and described Chabahar, a coastal site in the southeast, as an emerging launch hub able to support heavier liquid-fuel rockets.
He said the center would eventually serve as Iran’s main space gateway, with a position suited for placing satellites into sun-synchronous and geostationary orbits. Iran has also signed private-sector contracts for satellite constellations and highlighted recent launches aboard Russian rockets.
Iran says its space program is civilian and scientific, though Western governments argue that technologies used for satellite launches can support long-range missile development. President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Iran’s missile and space capabilities bolster national deterrence.
“In the F-35 fighter jet crash case, an official informed us it had happened, and we reported it exactly as given,” Peyman Jebeli, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), said in a speech at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran on Tuesday.
“Were we in the sky to know an F-35 had crashed? Were we behind the air defenses to know we hit an F-35? An official military authority informed us that it had happened, and we reflected it exactly as given. Later, for some reasons, they realized the information was not reliable,” he added.
On June 13, news spread in Iranian media that Iran had targeted an Israeli F-35 fighter jet and captured the Israeli female pilot. Locations such as Varamin, Tabriz and Kermanshah were cited as crash sites. Israel swiftly denied the reports.
“Yes, the media should not tie its credibility to other institutions, but when vital information is held by them, we have no choice but to operate within that framework,” Jebeli said.
On June 14, state TV aired the news, saying, “The Air Defense Force successfully struck and destroyed two F-35 fighter jets of the Zionist regime.” More than four days later, IRIB confirmed the report was not correct, offering no further explanation.
Asked about official polls on alleging the buoyant popularity of state TV inside Iran, Jebeli said that no polls had been fabricated but viewership is steadily declining.
“We never claimed our audience surged. The downward trend in viewership has continued since the early 2010s, though its slope has slowed,” he added.
