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Qaim-100 satellite carrier

Although most of the efficiency and added value of space activities are summarized in satellites and their functions, nevertheless, the basis of space development is satellite launchers, because until the satellite launcher can function properly, basically no satellite will be injected into the orbit. For this reason, launchers can be considered the most key issue in the space debate, and their investment and development is vital and inevitable.

In Iran, due to years of experience and development of missile power, there is a significant accumulation of knowledge and experience in this field, and thanks to this knowledge and experience, the Islamic Republic of Iran managed to gain access to space in the past years and satellites that it had built. inject into the earth's orbit. However, there is no doubt that the development of space activities in Iran requires the development of launchers.

Because the development of space activity that has added value and, on the other hand, has significant services for Iran depends on the construction of larger and heavier satellites, and placing such satellites in orbit naturally requires having launchers with high capabilities and reliability. At the same time, despite the fact that the program for the development of liquid fuel satellite carriers in the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Support follows a roadmap consisting of Simorgh, Sarir and Soroush satellite carriers, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has also determined to develop solid fuel satellite carriers as low-cost and with high reliability for space launches, and in this way, he was able to develop some new technologies .

One of the most important efforts of the IRGC in this field was the development of solid fuel space engines, the first product of which was unveiled in February 2018 as the Salman space engine. There were two important features in Salman, firstly, it is equipped with a thrust vector change system based on moving the output (nozzle) of the engine. Before this, Shahab, Qadr, Qiyam and Sajil family missiles all used the thrust vector control method, but based on the blocks installed at the exit of the rocket propellant. In this method, four blocks, which are made of very resistant materials and are generally made of graphite, are placed at the output of the engine and perform the task of changing the direction of the exhaust gases and creating the necessary force to change the direction.

General Hajizadeh, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force, during a speech, announced the test of the country's newest space engine capable of creating 68 tons of thrust (thrust). Shortly after Sardar Hajizadeh's speech, pictures related to the test of this engine were published, the engine named "Rafi". Among the salient features of the Rafe engine is that, like the Salman space engine, it has a very light composite body and a thrust vector control system (of the moving nozzle type) and can be used as the first stage of the satellite launchers under development by the IRGC Aerospace Force.

In fact, with the IRGC's acquisition of a solid fuel space engine and a moving nozzle "Rafi", the bottleneck of the launcher in Iran was solved, and this problem was solved by Fatah Babi himself for increasing the number of space launches in Iran per year, developing the satellite manufacturing industry, and also increasing the reliability of Iran's space launchers to do the launch for other countries.

The IRGC decided to face a significant increase in the speed of launching satellites into space, and for this reason, it turned to the design and construction of the satellites. Bigger and more powerful was called Qaim. "The sub-orbital launch of the Qaim 100 satellite was successfully carried out." This news, which was published on 14 November 2023, showed that soon Iran's hands will become more powerful in the field of aerospace and satellite carriers, and with this achievement, a new chapter in the field of aerospace power will take place.

According to the announcement of the IRGC Aerospace Force at that time, the Ghaem 100 solid fuel satellite is a satellite that, with three solid fuel stages, will be able to place satellites weighing 80 kg in an orbit 500 km from the earth's surface (although in the new launch, it turned out that The height has reached 750 km). The important point in the launch of the satellite carrier last year was the use of the Rafe solid fuel engine,

In a satellite image by Planet Labs Inc., a support vehicle stands parked alongside a massive white gantry that typically houses a rocket on the launch pad as activity is seen at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Semnan province, Iran, 11 December 2022. Iran appeared to be preparing for a space launch as negotiations continued in Vienna over its tattered nuclear deal with world powers. Iran said it launched a rocket with a satellite carrier bearing three devices into space, without saying whether any of the objects had entered Earth’s orbit.

Iranian state media has offered a list of upcoming planned satellite launches in the works for the Islamic Republic’s civilian space program, which has been beset by a series of failed launches. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency on 05 December 2021 published an article saying its space program had four satellites ready for launch. It described one, the low-orbit imaging satellite Zafar 2, as being “under the final phase of preparation.” Zafar, which means “victory” in Farsi, weighs some 113 kilograms (250 pounds).

"Iran says it has conducted new missile tests related to heavy-duty solid-fuel engines, as well as the use of composite materials in the missile hull," Farhikhtegan reported 13 January 2022. This news was first announced by Sardar Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the IRGC air force commander. IRNA initially reported the rocket had been launched into space, but later removed the reference in its story without explanation. Also, footage that was later released showed the rocket engine going through a static ground test.

Revolutionary Guard tested an engine for a solid-fuel satellite carrier rocket, the country’s state-run IRNA news agency reported 15 January 2022. The report quoted Gen. Amirali Hajizadeh, chief of the Guard’s aerospace unit, as saying the test was successful. He said it marked the first time Iran used a solid-fuel rocket rather than a liquid-fuel one. He said Iran will produce lighter rocket engines in further space projects. According to the general, the satellite carrier was made of a composite material instead of metal — something he claimed was “cost-efficient.” Hajizadeh spoke to a group of clerics in the city of Qom, the seat of seminaries in Iran.

Solid fuel rocket engines have general technical dimensions that can make them more suitable for military use than liquid fuel engines. Liquid-fuel missiles have some major problems that make them difficult to use in the military. Due to the need for continuous homogenization of liquid fuel as well as its corrosive nature, it can not be fired quickly, because quality control fuel, as well as not damaging the rocket tank, are stored separately in special tanks. On the other hand, solid fuel rockets do not have the problems of liquid fuel and can be kept inside the rocket tank at any time without special inspections and fuel extraction. Hence, solid-fuel missiles are capable of being deployed in long-term military patrols and rapid firing

Iran has been developing solid fuel rocket engines for at least two decades. The use of these engines in Iran is for military purposes and until 2020, they have been used only in missiles with a range of less than 2000 km, while at the same time, the Tehran space program had used only liquid fuel engines. The unveiling of the Iranian solid fuel heavy engine, which has been developed for IRGC satellites, was highly regarded by experts due to its multiple usability capabilities. Therefore, there are technical points about Iran's new solid fuel engine, which, in addition to general cases, include special cases related to this type of powerful engines. Despite all these special features, they are not limited to the solid fuel of the rocket, but also the use of composite materials in the rocket is important.

Iran's new solid-fuel engine could be the basis for building large numbers of anti-satellite missiles and deploying them on military alert. Iran has already found the power to intercept satellites in space, and in the future can combine this power with anti-satellite missiles to achieve effective space capabilitie.

It was announced in 2023 that "Nahid satellite" belonging to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is supposed to be put into orbit using a three-stage vertical 100 satellite carrier. It could be an optimized version of the Nahid satellite or a more up-to-date example of the products of Iran's universities, the details of which are not known at the moment. At the same time, after the recent launch of the satellite, Hassan Salarieh, the head of the Iran Space Organization, said that one of its features is the ability to test "satellite communications", which shows that the said satellite has important potentials for improving the scientific and technical power of Iran . With this important event, many subsystems developed by Iran's Space Research Institute are also placed in orbital testing conditions, and the way for the rapid development of Iran's indigenous space industry becomes smoother.

Since the launch of the "Omid" satellite in the middle of February 2007 until 2024, satellites such as Rosd, Noor and Navid have been successfully launched from within Iran, and some others, such as Zafar, have failed to reach their orbit, all of them eventually They were orbiting the earth at an altitude of about 500 km above the sea level, and fortunately, after 15 years, the spell of this distance was broken by the recent IRGC launch.

Having said that, while an advanced satellite with a variety of new and indigenous systems has successfully gone into space, the Qam 100 satellite carrier has also found the ability to carry up to 100 kg of satellites in its latest upgrade, while in last year's test, this amount was 80 kg. It was kg , and now the conditions are ready for launching heavier satellites at a higher altitude, more than ever before, and after years of staying at an altitude of about 500 kilometers, the time has come to move to far distances from the earth's surface.

It seems that the more experiences of the IRGC aerospace complex in the field of solid fuel missiles and the spillover of this knowledge to the space sector have caused the solid fuel option to receive more attention . For example, it should be mentioned that most of our unsuccessful space launches were for liquid fuel satellite carriers and the Space Organization of the Ministry of Defense has also moved towards the use of solid fuel propellant in its new generation launcher named Zul-Janah. In the new generation of IRGC launchers, instead of using traditional metal bodies, composite ones are used, which greatly reduces the weight, and as a result, with less force, cargoes equal to or heavier than normal satellite carriers with more power can be carried into orbit. .

In fact, this was a program that the Revolutionary Guards has been following for years under the guidance of the honorable martyr Major General Haj Hassan Tehrani Moghadam, and in this way it has achieved significant success, including heavy and super heavy solid fuel space engines in the Ghaem project. The successes that have not been publicized in the media so far, but from time to time, by publishing images related to the tests of these engines, it shows that there is a serious determination to develop solid fuel space engines in the IRGC, and now it has achieved brilliant results, and with this roadmap Soon we have to wait for the entry into service of a new generation of solid fuel satellite carriers by the IRGC that will be able to carry heavy cargo in higher orbits.

In general, it should be said that the Qased satellite carrier was actually a starting point and a shortcut for the IRGC to enter the space club of the world, but Qaim 100 is the first step in the IRGC's road map in the development of the Qaim series of satellite carriers, which started with Qaim 100, then 105, 110 and then the vertical will be 120; A path through which the country's path towards conquering the 36,000 km orbit of the earth can be facilitated; God willing.

The Iranian Space Agency successfully launched the Sorayya satellite into orbit at an altitude of 750 kilometers, the Iranian government announced 20 January 2024. The Sorayya satellite was launched using a three-stage Qaem 100 rocket as part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' space program. "The Sorayya satellite, owned by the Iranian Space Agency, was successfully launched using a three-stage solid-fuel carrier rocket Qaem 100 of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and put into orbit at an altitude of 750 kilometers," the government announced. The mass of the research satellite "Sorya" is declared to be about 50 kg.

The news of the launch of this satellite comes at a time when tensions are increasing in the Middle East following the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and just a few days ago, two neighboring countries, Iran and Pakistan, launched airstrikes on each other's territory. Iran says that the "Sorya" satellite is a research satellite; However, it has not yet published information about the missions of this satellite.

The launch of this satellite was also carried out within the framework of a program that is criticized by Western countries and raises concerns about the development of Tehran's ballistic missile program. Previously, the United States had emphasized that Iran's action in launching satellites is a violation of the UN Security Council resolution, and accordingly, it asked Tehran not to carry out any activities related to the project of developing ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

UN sanctions regarding Iran's ballistic missile program expired in October 2023. The intelligence community of the United States had announced in the assessment of global threats in 2023 that the development of Iran's space programs in the matter of launching satellites will allow this country to succeed in developing an intercontinental ballistic missile in a "shorter period of time"; Because the same technology is used in both of these projects.

The space commander of the Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force said: The next step is the Bar Qaem 105 satellite, which has stronger engines and a newer structure. In the next year, we will have the launch and research test of Qaim-105 satellite carrier. According to Mashreq report , Sardar Ali Jafarabadi, the space commander of the Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force, in a conversation with Khabar-Sima's Khabar 21 channel, referring to the launch of the Soraya satellite by the Qaim-100 satellite carrier, said: "Today, a golden leaf has been turned from the country's space history, and today's launch is from several aspects. It was important.

The Space Commander of IRGC Aerospace Force added: The launch was done with a satellite using all Iranian solid fuel, which was the first time to put an Iranian satellite into orbit. Sardar Hajizadeh said: For the first time, the satellite was able to place the satellite in a 750 km orbit, which is the first time our country conquers this orbit.

He continued: So far, the IRGC had only launched its internal satellites, which included the Noor triad, but today we were able to do a service to the government and launch a satellite belonging to the government and the Iranian Space Research Institute. The space commander of IRGC Aerospace Force stated: As the IRGC provides services to the government in various fields, we will continue to serve the government in the space field and the government's space cycle will move faster.

Sardar Jafarabadi, referring to the future plans of IRGC Aerospace Force in the field of space, stated: The next plan is that Qaim-100 satellite carrier will be placed in the operational cycle first, and our scientists and experts will go to the design of the next step. He added: The next step is the 105 vertical satellite, which has stronger engines and a newer structure. In the next year, we will have the launch and research test of Qaim-105 satellite carrier. A Ghaem-105 might employ a Raafe motor for both the first and second stages, the same way Zuljanah SLV does with its identical first and second stages [which can carry a heavier payload to low-earth orbit - reportedly 220 kg].

The space commander of the Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force stated: We are gradually preparing to reach the Qaim-120 satellite carrier in the next two or three years, which is supposed to take us to a 36,000 km orbit. He continued: In the next three years, we will enter the phase of research satellite launches on Qaim 120.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Ghaem-100 followed the same layout as the Aerospace Industries Organization Qased, with the solid-fueled Salman motor as a second stage and a smaller, unidentified solid motor as a third statge But the Ghaem-100’s first stage motor, called Raafe, is a substantial improvement over the Qased’s liquid-fueled first stage. The latter comes from the Ghadr missile, which is in turn based on the North Korean Hwasong-7. As a ballistic missile, the Ghaem-100 would likely reach ranges substantially greater than the 2,200 kilometers attributed to the Qased, assuming a 1,000-kilogram payload, though probably not capable of reaching intercontinental ranges of 5,500 km or greater. Iranwatch credits [perhaps optimistically] the Ghaem-100 SLV with a ballistic missile range of 3,000-4,000 km with a 1,000 kg payload.