Iran says it is building one-meter-resolution Earth observation satellites
constellation
Iran's space agency chief says the country is designing one-meter and sub-meter resolution remote-sensing satellites.
what happened
Hassan Salarieh, head of the Iranian Space Agency, said at a meeting on October 6 that Iran's Ministry of Telecommunications, in cooperation with other government departments, is designing and building several remote-sensing satellites with imaging resolution of about one meter and sub-meter, per Kayhan and Geo News. Salarieh said some of the satellites have completed their design phase and manufacturing will begin soon, as part of a multi-year program to build satellites at varying resolutions for mapping, agriculture, water-resource monitoring and disaster response; Geo News noted Iran previously accessed comparable imagery through Russia's Khayyam satellite and is separately completing its own Pars-2 satellite, targeting better-than-three-meter resolution.
why it matters
A one-meter sovereign imaging capability, if delivered, would put Iran's resolution in range of established commercial EO operators, but the claim is an official's statement about satellites still in design and manufacturing, not a demonstrated capability; the stated resolution figures are per Iranian state media and are unverified until a satellite actually flies and is confirmed to perform at that level.
for who
EO market watchers tracking sovereign imaging programs
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- none listed
- Category
- constellation
- Impact
- noise
- SNR
- 4 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-10-06
- Published
- 2026-10-06 23:12 UTC