Iran's space agency is trying to snap up technology from abroad as fast as possible for its satellite program, fearing the West will seek to restrict it as it has imposed intensive limitations over the country's nuclear program.
The drive is part of Iran's major ambitions in space, looking to show off its technological abilities, monitor its neighborhood — where the United States has hundreds of thousands of troops — and establish itself as a regional superpower.
Iran says it wants satellites to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation and improve its telecommunications infrastructure.
"We have not been subject to broad restrictions in space technology yet. But that doesn't mean that space program is less important than the nuclear program," said space official Mohammad Reza Movaseghinia.
"The moment they feel Iran has made a breakthrough, they will impose restrictions more than those they have imposed on Iran's nuclear program," he said.
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Iran's next step will be the launch of a satellite on an indigenous rocket. Iranian officials have said the country has been developing a Shahab-4 missile that will be used to launch a satellite into space.
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Iran is now the world's 43rd country owning a satellite, but the government aims higher.
"We have to build our own satellites, our own launchers. We need to be one of eight top countries mastering space technology," said Ahmad Talebzadeh, the head of the Iranian Space Agency.
But the program has raised concerns, particularly in Israel, over use of technology in Iran's ballistic missile program. The Shahab-3 can already reach Israel, as well as U.S. forces across the Middle East.
Iranian officials say America's use of space to monitor Afghanistan and Iraq before invading them helped the United States gather intelligence. That has been one of the reasons pushing Iran to give priority to space.
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