Zuljanah (rocket)
Zuljanah, also spelled Zoljanah, is an Iranian Satellite Launch Vehicle, made by the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics (Iran), which was unveiled on 1 February 2021, and was launched into sub-orbital flight for testing and telemetry purposes. Zuljanah is able to carry satellites weighing up to 220kg into an orbit 500 kilometers above the Earth.
According to Seyed Ahmad Husseini, the space spokesman of the Ministry of Defense: The Zuljanah SLV is part of a larger project called "Hazrat Fatemeh Al-Zahra". This SLV is considered to be the first indigenously designed and manufactured "hybrid" fuel satellite launch vehicle. As of June 2022, two more test flights are planned.
Design
Zuljanah measures 25.5 meters in length and has a mass of 52 tons. The first and second stages utilize an identical 1.5m diameter solid-fuel engine with 74 tons of thrust and a Safir type 1.25m diameter liquid-fuel engine with a thrust of 3.5 tons as a third stage. Zuljanah is capable of carrying a single satellite weighing up to 220kg or a constellation of ten smaller 20kg cubesats to Low-Earth Orbit.Zuljanah is the third civilian Satellite Launch Vehicle made in Iran, after the Safir and Simorgh. It is road-mobile, requires very little fueling time, and can be launched by Transporter-Erector Launchers, raising alarms from US and EU European defense analysts about its possible covert nature as Iran's first IRBM.