"In line with efforts to provide space station communications services ... the [Iranian] Space Agency has developed technical specifications for the first domestic narrowband telecommunications satellite, named after the deceased Qasem Soleimani ... Research companies from the space industry held a tender for the implementation of this project," Salarieh was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
The tender was won by an Iranian consortium which has already made agreements with the ISA on the development, construction, delivery, testing and launch of the telecommunications satellite system, the official added. The system will be sent into orbit within the next two years as the ISA already has several domestic satellites ready to be launched, he said.