The Fars News Agency (FNA), a privately-owned news organization in Iran, made the announcement on Thursday, August 21, 2008.

On Wednesday, August 20, 2008, Reza Taghipoor, the head of the Iran Aerospace Industries Organization (IAIO, which plans and manages Iran’s military aviation industry, stated that Iran will make a more specific decision as to its manned space plans within the next year.

Taghipoor stated, "One of the aims of Iran's 10-year space program is to send a manned rocket into space. Within the next six months to one year, the exact date of this mission will be determined.” [FNA: “Iran Plans to Send first Astronaut to Space in 10 Year s”]

According to Taghipoor, the goal of Iran is to be the leader in space technology in the Middle East by the year 2021.

On Sunday, August 17, 2008, Iran announced it had launched its Safir two-stage “satellite-carrier” rocket into space with a “dummy” satellite onboard. Further information about the lift-off is found in the iTWire article “Iran launches second satellite-carrier Safir rocket into space.”

According to Iran, the test rocket (Safir), which carried the dummy satellite, returned flight data to ground controllers during its flight into space.

The FNA article concludes by saying, “Last Friday, Iranian President Ahmadinejad said in an interview in Istanbul that Iran would in the near future launch its first domestically made satellite to the space. Despite long-time intense sanctions imposed by the West on the Islamic Republic, Iran has pursued a successful space program during the last several years.”

What do Western sources say about the launch on Sunday? Please read on.

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According to The New York Times article “Iran Reports Test of Craft Able to Carry a Satellite,” “Western experts said the launching represented a potentially significant if much-delayed step in Iran’s efforts to join the international space club.”

However, The New York Times article continued to state, “An administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said that the best American information indicated that the Iranian effort had failed, and that the rocket or the dummy satellite or both had broken up.”

It added, “Charles P. Vick, an expert on Iranian rockets at GlobalSecurity.org, a research group in Alexandria, Va., called the weekend test flight ‘a precursor to the satellite launch.’ He said the satellite’s launching had been repeatedly delayed and might occur in the next few weeks or months.”

The website of the Iranian National Space Agency (ISA) is https://www.isa.ir/index.php.