Iran has opened a new space center to monitor and observe space objects and satellites passing through the country’s atmosphere.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who inaugurated the facility near the town of Delijan some 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Tehran Sunday, said the Center will help the country to manage "activities of satellites" but was also capable of monitoring “very remote space,” according to the official IRNA press agency.
 
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said at the launch ceremony. “This center has been inaugurated to maintain the security of Iran's space and spatial systems since we should constantly monitor spatial objects and satellites passing through the country's atmosphere.”

The Space Center named “Imam Ja'far Sadeq (PBUH)” was opened in the central province of Markazi.

The Center will use three different methods of radar, electro-optic and radio detection to track and detect space objects, Vahidi said.

The system can also be used by other countries to control their space objects in orbit, he said.

Iran has nine command and control ground stations for its space program including one in Syria, the country's main Arab regional ally. The rest are located mainly in the central and southern parts of the country.

In one of its most recent high-profile space announcements, Iran said in February that it send a monkey into space.

 

Source: Fars; IRNA; AP