Four months ago, the ‘Zafar-2’ (Triumph-2) satellite was launched into space from the heart of Iran University of Science and Technology, successfully entering orbit after launch. The project that led to the satellite’s deployment had taken shape not at a military base, but within a university environment among classrooms, laboratories, and student workshops.
The site targeted in the US-Israeli missile strike is the same location where part of that scientific process had taken place — the university’s satellite research center. The building, located inside a university campus in Tehran, stands adjacent to faculties frequented daily by students of engineering and basic sciences.
Tasnim’s correspondent has given a field account of the site targeted during the war, a research facility dedicated to the development of indigenous space technology and the training of a new generation of researchers. Although signs of destruction are now visible there, traces of knowledge, experience, and scientific effort remain.
Students and researchers at the university insist that technology is not confined to buildings and that knowledge developed in people’s minds cannot be destroyed with the demolition of a structure.
Students of Iran University of Science and Technology say that, just as the phoenix rises from the ashes, the path of research and development will not be halted — a path that previously led to the Zafar-2 satellite and, according to them, will continue in the future as well.
