TEHRAN, July 20 (RIA Novosti, Nikolai Terekhov) - Iran plans to launch its Mesbah communications satellite in 2005, a source in the presidential administration said.
"The project on the launch of the communications satellite was presented to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami at the Supreme Council session on space technologies," the source said.
"Iran has developed a small communications satellite together with Italian and Iranian companies and we intend to launch it this year," he added.
In addition to discussing Iran's Mesbah and Zohreh satellite projects, the council also discussed the possibility of producing a new multi-purpose satellite with China and Thailand.
The Mesbah satellite will be put into orbit by a Russian space carrier vehicle. The satellite will collect data on ground and water resources and meteorological conditions, and will be used to control power supply systems and pipelines. In January 2005 Russia and Iran signed an agreement in Tehran on the construction of the Zohreh communication satellite. The launch of this new generation space vehicle is scheduled for 2007.
