TEHRAN – An Iranian-made satellite called Zafar-2 will be launched in the Iranian calendar month of Khordad (May 21- June 20), IRIB reported on Wednesday.

The country launched its domestically-made Zafar satellite using a Simorgh (Phoenix) satellite carrier on Sunday, but the missile fell short of reaching the designated orbit.

Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Minister of Communication and Information Technology, said that Zafar-2 satellite has been designed and completed with the same capabilities as the first Zafar, however, the cameras have more accuracy of 16 meters.

Zafar satellite is able to create land use maps, urban development monitoring maps, agricultural land boundary maps, and natural land and forest change maps, as well as monitor permanent and seasonal lake changes and identify post-disaster demolition in urban areas and upgrade structural maps (fault and folding identification).

Iran launched its first satellite, called Omid (literally meaning hope), in 2009. Rasad (literally meaning observation) satellite was also sent into orbit in 2011.

In 2012, Iran successfully put its third domestically manufactured satellite, named Navid (literally meaning promise), into orbit.

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