The Safir (Persian: سفیر, meaning "ambassador") was the first Iranian expendable launch vehicle able to place a satellite in orbit.^[1] The first successful orbital launch using the Safir launch system took place on 2 February 2009 when a Safir carrier rocket placed the Omid satellite into an orbit with a 245.2 km (152.4 mi) apogee.^[2][3] This made Iran the ninth nation capable of producing and launching a satellite.^[4]

The Simorgh is a larger orbital launcher based on Safir technology which has since replaced the Safir, and is sometimes called the Safir-2.^[5]

The Safir measures 1.25 meters in diameter, 22 meters in height and has a launching mass of 26 tons. The rocket consists of two stages; The first stage utilizes an upgraded Nodong/Shahab-3 type engine which burns a hypergolic combination of UDMH as fuel and nitrogen tetroxide as oxidant, producing 37 tons (363 kN; 82,500 lbf) of thrust. The second stage utilizes a pair of smaller engines (originally the Vernier engines of the R-27 Zyb Soviet SLBM^[6]) burning the same fuel combination as the first stage and producing 3.5 tons (35 kN; 7700 lbf) of thrust. This configuration gives Safir the ability to inject a payload with a maximum weight of 50 kilograms into low Earth orbit.^[7]

During the unveiling ceremony of the Zuljanah satellite launch vehicle on the state TV, Seyed Ahmad Husseini, the spokesman of the Ministry of Defense's Aerospace Organization stated that the Safir Launch vehicle is in a state of retirement and no further launches are planned with this vehicle.^[13][14][15]

Safir has made eight launches so far, putting four satellites into orbit.

More information Test flights, Flight no. ...

Test flights
Flight no.	Date & time (UTC)	Payload		Configuration	Outcome	Remarks
1	4 February 2008	Unknown		Kavoshgar-1	Success	Successful suborbital test flight of Safir's precursor.[8][9]
2	17 August 2008	Unknown; may be boilerplate		Safir-1	Maybe	Iranian officials assert it was a successful suborbital test carrying a boilerplate satellite. US defense officials assert the vehicle failed after first-stage powered flight.[16][17]
Operational flights
Flight no.	Date & time (UTC)	Payload		Configuration	Outcome	Achieved orbit	Remarks
1	2 February 2009	Omid	27 kg	Safir-1	Success	381.2 x 245.5 km, i 55.71°	First successful orbital launch of Safir making Iran the ninth country to develop an indigenous satellite launch capability.[18]
2	15 June 2011	Rasad	15.3 kg	Safir-1A	Success	271 x 233 km, i 55.6°	Rasad-1 was launched on the maiden flight of the Safir-1A
3	3 February 2012	Navid	50 kg	Safir-1B	Success	375 x 250 km, i 55°	New configuration of the Safir carrier rocket, featuring a larger second stage with 20% more thrust.[19]
?	Between 18 May and 21 June 2012	?	?	?	Supposed failure		Satellite imagery shows a blast scar on launch pad, suggesting that there has been a launch. No officials have confirmed a launch. It may have been either an engine test or rocket failure at high altitude.[5]
5	2 February 2015	Fajr	52 kg	Safir-1B	Success	470 x 224 km, i 55.57°	First Iranian satellite with orbital maneuverability using cold-gas thrusters.
6	5 February 2019	Doosti	52 kg	Safir-1B	Failure		The Deputy Minister of Defense in Iran claimed a successful launch.[20] Research associates at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies claimed the launch failed at some point after liftoff.[21]
(7)	29 August 2019	No payload[22]		Safir-1B	Failure		Launch preparation accident.[23][24]

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• 2012 launch of navid satellite
• Safir at an exhibition at the Mosalla of Tehran
• Safir first-stage engine

• International rankings of Iran in Science and Technology
• Iranian Space Agency
• Semnan Space Center

Other Iranian satellite launch vehicles

• Simorgh (rocket)
• Qased (rocket)
• Qaem-100 (rocket)
• Zuljanah (rocket)