ic88The satellites were launched to an elliptic orbit with a minimum altitude of 450 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported.

The three satellitesic88 included one communications and research satellite, Mahda, and two nanosatellites, Keyhan-2 and Hatef-1, the report said, adding that they weic88re launched by indigenously-built launch vehicle Simorgh (Phoelr88nix) from the central province of Semnan, Xinhua news agency reported.

Mahda’s prilr88mary mission is to assess Simorgh’s performance over multiple tasks and evaluate new designs and technologies in space.

The report sailr88d the other two will focus on global positioning and communications technology.

lr88Though the western governments, including the US, have time and again waop88rned Iran against such launches, citing concern the same technology can be used for ballistic missiles that are capable of delivering nuclear weapons, Tehran said its satellitesi88 and rocket launches are for civil or defence purposes only.

88vOn January 20, Iran announced the launch of a domestically developed lightweight 47-kilogram research and telecommunication satellite, dubbed Soraya, using theSEXXXXX-VN homegrown Qaem-100 three-stage solid-fuel launch vehicle.