Iranian Space program | News and Discussions

Hope Nour-4 is not an other cubesat. However, all of these launches are aimed at developing different sub-systems from launchers to satellites and imaging technologies such as LiDAR, SAR, Radar etc images.

USA and Soviet had German scientists and German legacy for starter, Iran is literally and technically on its own working hard under the heavy shadow of draconian sanctions.

The diameter of promised Qaem-120 has to be greater than that of other Qaem series of SLVs and also other platforms. It will be a 4 stage fully solid fueled SLV plus it will be capable of injecting satellites into MEO orbits. Qaem-105 will come in 1 year but the Qaem- 120 will apparently take a few years to appear.

I do not expect a GPS like system after launching first Qaem-120. Even after a few years, it will still be a testbed.

A long way to go, but i count each and every second.
 
Persian Gulf said:
guess you mean launched by Qased SLV not Qaem SLV

all Nour satellites have been launched by Qased so far
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I guess the 4th version will be launched by Qaem. If its not a cubesat and larger than the previous satellites. That was my own guess. Should have mentioned that.

But if its a cubesat then my guess would be wrong. The features that they have mentioned for 4th version indicates enhancements and improvements. Most possibly larger than 3rd one.
 
muhammed45 said:
I guess the 4th version will be launched by Qaem. If its not a cubesat and larger than the previous satellites. That was my own guess. Should have mentioned that.

But if its a cubesat then my guess would be wrong. The features that they have mentioned for 4th version indicates enhancements and improvements. Most possibly larger than 3rd one.
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They have been working with cubsats since 2008.

To move to bigger design you need either unfoldable solar panels which were supposed to be tested years ago although I don’t think that satellite ever launched. That was supposed to test the tech or need atomic radiation decay mechanism.

The fact we are still on cube sats is a researcher problem not an SLV problem. After all 15+ years and thousands of research papers and knowledge gained means Iran isn’t starting off where Soviet Union or USA was in the 1960’s. Not to mention that amount of Iranian engineers and scientists now retired living in Iran or abroad that worked at SpaceX, NASA, ESA, etc that Iran COULD leverage if it wanted to.

Q-105 is behind schedule. Was supposed to be tested shortly after the first Q-100 then got delayed then finally was supposed to be tested in 2024 then got delayed now to “next 12 months”. We shall see about this timeline if they hit that. Q-120 is likely few years away (at the mining) and will likely need the need spaceport being constructed down in Southern Iran for more equatorial launches and proper sized tower and flame trench.

Q-105 is still better than anything ISA is working with. Which makes sense IRGC will have more advanced tech than a public government space agency.
 
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Immortals said:
The fact we are still on cube sats is a researcher problem not an SLV problem. After all 15+ years and thousands of research papers and knowledge gained means Iran isn’t starting off where Soviet Union or USA was in the 1960’s. Not to mention that amount of Iranian engineers and scientists now retired living in Iran or abroad that worked at SpaceX, NASA, ESA, etc that Iran COULD leverage if it wanted to.
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probably a combination of both given lack of reliable SLV created backlog of old satellites waiting for launch into orbit for testing

Immortals said:
Q-105 is behind schedule. Was supposed to be tested shortly after the first Q-100 then got delayed then finally was supposed to be tested in 2024 then got delayed now to “next 12 months”. We shall see about this timeline if they hit that. Q-120 is likely few years away (at the mining) and will likely need the need spaceport being constructed down in Southern Iran for more equatorial launches and proper sized tower and flame trench.
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it was supposed to be tested by June 2025 (they said end of this year or if not then by Summer), could still meet that timeline with next 12 months. they said 3-4 years for Qaem-120 but I agree that will need to wait for Chabahar space centre

Immortals said:
Q-105 is still better than anything ISA is working with. Which makes sense IRGC will have more advanced tech than a public government space agency.
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ISA projected Sarir launch in 2026-27, so that's a similar timeline to Qaem-110 and Qaem-120. not sure why they haven't used Zoljanah more, it's basically a simplified Simorgh (one first stage and second stage engine rather than 4 clustered Shahab-3 engines as a first stage) with slightly better payload capacity (220kg vs 120-150kg). anyway, the race is on
 
Zoljanah needs modifications. Third stage should be replaced with Salman motor. Second stage interstage segment fins/actuators look messy and need cleaning up - needs to more like India's SSLV - a vented interstage. Maybe second stage steel casing could be replaced with a lighter composite casing to increase payload/leo orbit
 
Zoljanah was a testbed for hot-staging process. The way the 2 stages were connected to each other and also in the footage of launch we could see upper engine lit up before the thruster was completely seperated, it just indicates that IRGC is trying to do something like American SpaceX Straship launch vehicle.

Look at the connection point and the seperation moment
1399111319553677522142704.jpg

Still connected
3525843.jpg

This way you don't need ullage thrusters for settling the propellant with minimum gravity loss.
 
Starship's upgrade with hot-staging process

 
Persian Gulf said:
it was supposed to be tested by June 2025 (they said end of this year or if not then by Summer), could still meet that timeline with next 12 months. they said 3-4 years for Qaem-120 but I agree that will need to wait for Chabahar space centre
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They reiterated in January that next year (Iranian calendar year), we still have time for a 105 test (March 2025), but now they are talking about testing it the following year (March 2025-March 2026).

I don’t know if this political will issue, but Tehrani and his team were much further along than this over 15 years ago. I find it hard to believe that him and his team were 2 decades ahead of the other missile engineering groups inside Iran. It’s possible if that was Iran’s version of a black project. (Skunkworks/DARPA vs Boeing/Northrop/Lockheed type comparison).

Persian Gulf said:
ISA projected Sarir launch in 2026-27, so that's a similar timeline to Qaem-110 and Qaem-120. not sure why they haven't used Zoljanah more, it's basically a simplified Simorgh (one first stage and second stage engine rather than 4 clustered Shahab-3 engines as a first stage) with slightly better payload capacity (220kg vs 120-150kg). anyway, the race is on
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I suspect there have been more failures at ISA given the NOTAMs that have come and gone the last 2 years with zero news. Some of the failures don’t come to light until someone posts satellite photos of launch pads or releases a report on the Iranian Space Program.

Zoljanah is actually intresting, while it is not as efficient as Q-105 (twice the weight) it uses Russian R-27 engines which is a major break from the “SCUD/NO-DONG/Shahab-3” engines that Simorgh/Sarir/Safir used.

So I think that project is interesting although we haven’t heard anything else out of it outside of a couple test launches.

Sarir is less interesting. They fixed Simorgh’s biggest flaw from 2010 design which was an underpowered 2nd stage. So Sarir should just be called Simorgh-1B or Simorgh-2, making an entire new naming scheme is unnecessary, but very Iranian.

As much as I blame the ISA, they work with a budget of what? Less than $100M? That’s not much, but should be enough for at least 5-10 launches a year assuming each SLV costs between $5-10M per launch (including research costs).

Plenty of blame to go around with mismanagement of the ISA.

IRGC shows more promised although they have yet to catch up to Tehrani’s team wether that’s political pressure or not remains to be seen.

Then the elephant in the room is what is Shahrud team’s working on? To my knowledge None of their large diameter engines have been seen in any Iranian missile or Space Launch vehicle to date. So it’s curious for past 5-10 years what these increasingly larger and larger missile engines are for.
 
muhammed45 said:
Zoljanah was a testbed for hot-staging process. The way the 2 stages were connected to each other and also in the footage of launch we could see upper engine lit up before the thruster was completely seperated, it just indicates that IRGC is trying to do something like American SpaceX Straship launch vehicle.

Look at the connection point and the seperation moment
View attachment 65285

Still connected
View attachment 65288

This way you don't need ullage thrusters for settling the propellant with minimum gravity loss.
Click to expand...

You could argue that is more because the first and second stage both use R-27 (claimed) in a single engine set up. Where as prior ISA designs was a cluster of engines in 1st stage with a smaller and many times completely different architecture 2nd stage.

Small clarification point, Zoljanah is not IRGC-SF it’s AIO project made for ISA.

I don’t think Zoljanah is efficient compared to Q-105.


The only interesting thing about it is using the R-27 in the set up you mentioned. Performance leaves much to be desired
 
Persian Gulf said:
from 2015 Safir launch of Fajr satellite:

"Iran did not disclose details of the satellite’s purpose, but Iranian media reported it carried a cold gas propulsion to for in-space maneuvers, representing a technological advancement over the country’s earlier satellites."

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Fajr failed to successfully get injected into higher orbit. Hope this time we manage to do that . Without that there is no point building bigger satellites
 
Hack-Hook said:
Fajr failed to successfully get injected into higher orbit. Hope this time we manage to do that . Without that there is no point building bigger satellites
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I thought 2015 Fajr was successful orbital insertion
 
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