TEHRAN – The head of the Iranian Space Agency says the country manufactures satellites domestically at a low-cost.

“It wouldn’t be right to think Iran’s space industry runs is an expensive one,” said Hassan Salarieh.

“We are among the most inexpensive countries in the world when it comes to building satellites, and this reality reflects efforts by the elite in the country and the development of a domestic technology,” he added.

Decades of sanctions have made Iran self-sufficient in a whole range of areas, including the development of satellites, drones and missiles.

Despite challenges, Iran has rapidly developed its satellite, missile and drone technology in recent years. Iran’s pursuit of this technology is facilitated by its relative simplicity and low cost. For example, Iranian drones such as the Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 only cost around $20,000 per item, making them relatively affordable in the face of a sanctioned economy. 

Salarieh underlined the cost of space industries in other countries, including the U.S., Russia and European countries is much higher than that of Iran. “Countries in possession of modern space industries are numerous, … but the type of costs and investment in the space industries of those countries are not comparable to those of Iran, whatsoever,” he explained.

He said Iran keeps moving forward on the path to developing technologies domestically and follows in the footsteps of no other country.

“We have our own technologies and develop them based on our own human resources,” he noted.

He explained that the cost of workforce in Iran is much lower than that in other countries.

Salarieh underscored Iran is developing its space technology locally, so it comes at a considerably low cost.

The space chief highlighted that Iran designs and produces many of its satellite subsystems domestically and rarely imports high-cost foreign technologies. 

Over the past few years, Iran has launched several domestically produced satellites into space, with many more awaiting launches. The country has also utilized domestically made launchers in many instances. Last year, a member of Iran's Space Agency told the Tehran Times that the country's ultimate goal is to secure customers like Russia and the United States in the space sector.