TEHRAN: Iran’s president said on Monday the Islamic republic plans to launch two domestically made satellites into orbit in the “coming days” to gather information on the country’s environment, state TV reported.

“In the coming days we will launch two satellites into space,” President Hassan Rouhani said during a trip to the northeastern Golestan province. Payam would orbit the earth at about 600kms above its surface, according to state TV. Rouhani did not name the second satellite, but said both were manufactured at Tehran’s Amirkabir University of Technology.

Tehran denied the charges on Monday that its aerospace activities were a violation of the UN Security Council resolution, semi-official ISNA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as saying.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2019