But it didn’t acknowledge that Rasad had a very short life of just 21 days.
Hamid Fazeli, chief of Iran’s Space Agency, told the state news agency Saturday that Rasad had “accomplished its mission” and re-entered the atmosphere.
Rasad neglected to say precisely when Rasad fell out of orbit. He was quoted as saying it had orbited the earth “for about one month and two to three weeks,” which would have meant it died in early August.
But NASA’s satellite tracking service reported it fell out of orbit a month before that on July 6 after just 21 days in orbit.
The Iran Times reported on the NASA listing two weeks ago.
Fazeli said all the objectives of the Rasad had been achieved. He said the 15-kilogram satellite had carried out topography missions and produced high-resolution maps from its cameras. The Space Agency has not, however, publicly issued any photos from Rasad,
On the launch in June, Fazeli said Rasad would remain in orbit about two months.
Omid, the first satellite launched by Iran in 2009, stayed in orbit 85 days before decaying and falling into the atmosphere. The fact that the Rasad survived just 21 days or only one-fourth as long suggests Iran’s space program planners don’t have as much mastery as they claim.
Back in October 2005, the Russian space agency built and launched a much larger satellite named Sina for Iran. That satellite is still in orbit after almost six years.
The NASA website says Rasad fell out of orbit July 6. NASA made no announcement about Rasad’s end; the date simply appears in NASA’s voluminous records on thousands of satellites and was discovered by the Iran Times while making a check on the satellite.
The Islamic Republic launched the Rasad to great fanfare June 15, but then turned surprisingly silent. Officials announced that Rasad had transmitted photos from orbit back to earth. But they never released any of the photos to the public. That hinted there might have been a problem with Rasad. Iran has issued photos taken from the Russian-made Sina satellite.