Iran will launch its first sensor-operational satellite in 2018, in 2018, a top official of Iran Space Research Center said on Sunday.

Hassan Haddadpour said that “Soha” satellite will be launched to promote Iran Space Research Center laboratory, emphasized in the six development plan, reported Irna.

He underlined elevation of laboratory capabilities of Iran in a way that it will be able to support bigger satellites weighing 1 tonne.

Iran has now acquired the know-how of designing and constructing the satellites inside the country, Haddadpour added.

He said that the Soha satellite will be able to identify things with resolution of 15m and will be deployed in the 36,000-km orbit.

“The Doosti satellite will be launched at first and Nahid-1 Telecommunication Satellite will be launched afterwards,” Haddadpour added.