Iran’s new spaceport expected to be operational by March 2013

TEHRAN – Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi has announced that Iran’s new space center, named the Imam Khomeini spaceport, is expected to become operational by the end of the current Iranian calendar year, which concludes on March 20.
  
“The construction of the Imam Khomeini spaceport is on the agenda of the (Defense) Ministry, and the execution (of the plan has started), and we hope that it will be completed by the end of the year,” Brigadier General Vahidi told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.  

Vahidi had previously said that the new space center would be used for sending satellites manufactured by Iran and other Muslim countries into space.  

Elsewhere in his remarks, the defense minister pointed to six new defense achievements, which were unveiled during a ceremony in Tehran on Tuesday, and said that the pieces of military hardware which were unveiled are not all of the new defense achievements of the country. 

The Fateh 110-D1 (Conqueror 110-D1) missile, which is an upgraded version of the Fateh 110 missile, the Bonyan 4 (Foundation 4) ship engine, the Armita flying laboratory, the Aras tactical command vehicle, the Vafa mortar launcher, and the Shahed (Observer) navigation and surveillance system were the pieces of military hardware that were unveiled on Wednesday.