TEHRAN -- Iran announced Tuesday it had successfully placed its second reconnaissance satellite into space.
“Iran’s second military satellite -- named Nour-2 -- has been launched into space by the Qassed rocket of the aerospace wing of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and successfully placed in orbit 500 kilometers (310 miles) above the Earth,” the official IRNA news agency reported.
The IRGC described the Nour-2 as a “reconnaissance satellite” in a statement on its Sepah News website. The Qased, or “Messenger” in Farsi, is a three-phase, mixed-fuel satellite carrier.
It said the satellite was launched from the Shahroud desert in Semnan province, some 300 kilometers (200 miles) east of the capital.
“It is a great achievement that we can put our eyes in the sky again and look at the Earth from space,” said IRGC chief Maj. Gen. Hussein Salami.
Telecommunications Minister Issa Zarepour hailed the successful launch.
“The first signals from Nour-2 have been successfully received by ground stations,” he said in statement on IRNA. “This reconnaissance satellite will orbit the Earth every 90 minutes, and its mission will last at least three years.”
Iran successfully put its first military satellite into orbit in April 2020.
Nour-2 satellite is expected to carry out a range of military and civilian missions in Iran, including reconnaissance and natural disaster response operations.