Updated on Thursday, September 25, 2008, 00:00 IST

Tehran, Sept 25: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran plans to send a satellite carrier rocket into space soon.

Iranian state TV quotes Ahmadinejad as saying the Persian nation will soon "launch a rocket, which has 16 engines and will take a satellite some 430 miles" into space.

Ahmadinejad spoke to a group of Iranian expatriates in New York, where he is attending the UN General Assembly.

Iran is working on a space program. Earlier this month, it announced that a joint Iranian-Chinese research satellite was sent into orbit by a Chinese-made rocket.

Last month, Iran tested a rocket it hopes will one day carry an all-Iranian research satellite. In 2005, Tehran sent its first commercial satellite into space on a Russian rocket.

Bureau Report