Simorgh (rocket)

Simorgh (Persian: ماهواره‌بر سیمرغ‎‎, Phoenix), also called Safir-2, is an Iranian expendable small-capacity orbital carrier rocket, which was originally scheduled to make its maiden flight in 2010. The project was unveiled by Iraninan President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on 3 February 2010, as part of celebrations of the first anniversary of the launch of Omid, the first indigenously-launched Iranian satellite.

The Simorgh rocket is 27 metres (89 ft) long, and has a launch mass of 87 tonnes (192,000 lb). Its first stage is powered by four main engines, each generating up to 29,000 kilograms-force (280 kN; 64,000 lbf) of thrust, plus a fifth engine used for attitude control, providing an additional 13,600 kgf (133 kN; 30,000 lbf). At liftoff, these engines generate a total 130,000 kgf (1,300 kN; 290,000 lbf) of thrust. Simorgh was designed to place a 350-kilogram (770 lb) payload into a 500-kilometre (310 mi) low Earth orbit. According to ISNA the engine could be used in future rockets capable of carrying 700-kilogram (1,500 lb) satellites into 1,000-kilometre (620 mi) orbits.

The first flight of the Simorgh rocket will carry Toloo (Sunrise), an experimental imaging satellite. Further launches are expected to carry Mesbah-2. and Autsat In November 2011, Iran announced that the first flight of Simorgh carrying the Toloo satellite would occur in 2012 from the new Semnan spaceport. Eventually Simorgh flew for the first time on April 19, 2016, for a suborbital test flight whose outcome has not been published. The Toloo satellite is now scheduled for launch in early 2017, according to Head of the Iranian Space Research Center Manouchehr Manteqi.