''Fajr'' ( fa, فجر, meaning "dawn") is an Iranian

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

which was launched on 2 February 2015. Fajr had a mass of 52 kg and was equipped with an optical imaging payload which would have reached a ground resolution of about . It is the first Iranian satellite to use a cold-gas thruster system, to conduct orbital maneuvers and increase its service life by raising its orbit to prevent a fast decay. An experimental GPS system developed by Iran is also part of the spacecraft. The Fajr satellite is expected to operate for 1.5 years. The satellite body is a 6-sided prism with a height of and a width of . Fajr was launched by a Safir-1B rocket from the Iranian Space Agency's launch site in Semnan city. The launch took place at around 08:50:00 UTC on 2 February 2015, Iran's national day of space and the sixth anniversary of the country's first successful orbital launch. The satellite was deployed into a

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

with a

perigee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...

of 224 km, an

apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...

of 470 km, an

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...

of 55.53°, and an

orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets ...

of 91.5 minutes. Fajr reentered in the Earth's atmosphere on 26 February 2015 after 23.8 days in orbit. Apparently, it performed no maneuvers during its orbital lifetime.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2015 Spacecraft launched in 2015 Satellites of Iran 2015 in Iran