[caption id="attachment_148821" align="alignright" width="194"] Iran's president Hasan Rouhani[/caption]
Tehran, Feb 17, IRNA – President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated the ceremony marking Iran's Space Technology Day here on Tuesday.

Several high-ranking Iranian officials including Minister of Defense Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan and Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi also were present in the ceremony.

Prior to the inauguration ceremony, President Rouhani visited an Exhibition on Achievements of Iran's Latest Space Technologies.

Several locally-achieved space attainments are on display in the exhibition.

Iran is the fourth country, after Russia, US and China, which is going to independently send astronauts into orbit.

Earlier this month, Iran successfully placed into orbit the domestically-made National Fajr (Dawn) Satellite with President Rouhani issuing the order for its launch.

Equipped with GPS navigation system, Fajr, weighing 52 kilos, is the fourth Iranian-made satellite which was put into orbit after three others between 2009 and 2012.

After Iran launched its first locally-built satellite, Omid (Hope), in 2009, it put two other satellites including, Rasad (Observation), and Navid-e Elm-o Sanat (Harbinger of Science and Industry) into space.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the 24 founding members of the United Nations' Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space which was set up in 1959.


By IRNA