Fajr

Spacecraft nr:

Iran spacecraft nr: 6

Launch data:

Spacecraft data:

Mission details:

• Fajr was a 50 kg satellite built by IEI (Iran Electronics Industry), with an imaging payload and a small thruster. It was expected to be launched by a two-stage Safir rocket from the Semnan launch site on May 23, but frequent Iranian media reports in advance of the expected date were followed by sudden silence.
• Evidence of launch pad burn marks were presented in an article by N. Hansen in Jane's Intelligence Review, and other unsourced reports discussed on nasaspaceflight.com claimed that US authorities detected a launch.
  This leads to conclude that the Fajr satellite was indeed launched as scheduled on or around May 23 but failed to reach orbit.
• Recent statements from Iran say that the Fajr satellite will be launched in the coming months; under the interpretation discussed here, this must be a backup flight model.
• The launch failure rumours are not specific and don't indicate whether the failure was a low altitude first stage problem or a high altitude second stage malfunction. The launch and date is still uncertain, pending more substantive confirmation either from the Iranians or from US government sources. In a US election year, rumour-intelligence about Iranian missile activity will have a higher-than-usual tendency to bias and overinterpretation and must be treated with extra caution.
• The Iranian orbital launch record is thus as follows:

     2008 Aug 16  Omid   - failed to orbit
     2009 Feb  2  Omid   - success
     2011 Jun 15  Rasad  - success
     2012 Feb  3  Navid  - success
     2012 May 23? Fajr   - failed to orbit? (uncertain)