by JASSEM AL SALAMI

After six years of massive expenditures and lurid propaganda, on Jan. 9 Tehran shut down its troubled space program. The unceremonious cancellation occurred without notice in the Iranian press.

Authorities are spreading the space agency’s manpower and assets across four ministries including the telecoms ministry and the ministry of defense.

Iran had dabbled in space exploration since the early 1970s. In 2002, reformist president Mohammad Khatami ordered the ministries of science and telecommunications to establish a national program for achieving space capabilities, mainly focusing on the design and development of satellites with Russian cooperation.

But the Iranian Space Agency, in its current form, actually formed on Sept. 27, 2010, when then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brought the national space consul and several small research institutes under the direct supervision of presidential office, this time mainly focusing on space launchers. Rockets, that is.

“When we launch a satellite into space, there is a huge boost in the morale of the public,” Ahmadinejad explained.

The new Iranian space program benefited from immense investment by the Iranian government. At least three major institutions supported the program.

The Imam Khomeini Space Center in Semnan was responsible for the construction and launch of the rockets. The Iranian Space Research Center in Tehran oversaw development of subsystems. The Imam Sadegh Observatory Complex in Arak tracked Iranian and foreign satellites.

Dozens of small university research groups supported the three main facilities.