Iran sets up first space monitoring center

ARAK,June 10(MNA) – The country’s first space monitoring center was inaugurated in the central Iranian province of Markazi in a ceremony held on Sunday attended by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi. The Imam Jafar Sadeq Space Monitoring Center, which has been designed and constructed by experts at Iran Electronics Industries, will be used to track objects passing in orbit overhead. Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said that the center had been established to maintain the security of the country’s airspace and space facilities because the space objects and satellites that pass overhead should be constantly monitored. The defense minister also said that the center used radar, electro-optic, and radio systems to track space objects. Elsewhere in his remarks, Vahidi said that Iran would also be able to share the acquired data with other countries. In addition, he said that other achievements in the aerospace industry would be announced in the near future. Iran preparing to launch Arak reactor In another ceremony held in Markazi Province on Sunday attended by President Ahmadinejad and Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Director Fereydoun Abbasi, the containment structure of the Arak heavy water reactor was installed. The Arak reactor is planned to replace the Tehran research reactor to produce radioisotopes for cancer treatment. The installation of the containment structure of the Arak reactor is considered an important step toward the completion of the 40-megawatt nuclear reactor. Abbasi said on the sidelines of the ceremony that “virtual” (non-nuclear) fuel would be loaded into the core of the Arak reactor by the end of the current Iranian calendar year, which concludes on March 20, 2014. Iran announced in April 2012 that the production line of “virtual” fuel for the Arak nuclear reactor had been launched at a nuclear facility in Isfahan.