Iranian satellite fails to reach earth's orbit

Iran on Sunday failed to successfully launch an indigenous research satellite named "Zafar" into the Earth's orbit as it could not attain the necessary speed.

"Stage-1 and stage-2 motors of the carrier functioned properly and the Zafar satellite was successfully detached from its carrier, but at the end of its path it did not reach the required speed for being put in the orbit," said Ahmad Hosseini, a spokesperson for the Iranian Defense Ministry, as quoted by the Voice of America.

"The Zafar satellite did not reach orbit as planned because it did not reach the necessary speed," he added.

The launch took place from the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran's Semnan province at 7:15 pm (local time) which is located 230 km southeast of Tehran.

Iran's Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi admitted in a Twitter post that "failure happened", adding: "But We're UNSTOPPABLE! We have more Upcoming Great Iranian Satellites!"

Zafar Research Satellite was developed by the scientists of the University of Science and Technology and was later to the Space Organization for discharging the satellite into the orbit, reported IRNA.

Another copy of Zafar will be sent to orbit in June this year.