Iranian Government has Ambitious Spacepower Goals but it has Consistently Failed on Similar Projects because of Poor Coordination
Iran is determined to attain an independent satellite capability for communications and research, and in the future, for military purposes. If the launches of the Zohreh communications satellites and the other research satellites are successful, Iran will probably seek to obtain additional capabilities, especially the independent construction and launching of its own satellites. It will also probably try to build a military image-collecting satellite for supplying photographs of military quality. Iran regards these projects beyond their functional aspects, as contributing to the nation's strength and deterrence capability and bolstering its position as the region's leader. Today, at a time when almost every state can purchase satellite products on the open market - from imagery for research to communications channels, and even military quality imagery (up to a resolution of one meter) - there is little cost effectiveness in investing enormous resources to attain an independent satellite capability. Nevertheless, a close examination of the projects that Iran has been engaged in indicates its great difficulty in attaining these capabilities. Iran has failed to reach even the basic stages in these grandiose projects after many years of effort, stages that other states attained a long time ago. The reasons for this failure are not clear but they seem to be linked to the government's inherent inability to coordinate government agencies, resolve conflicting demands, and mobilize the required resources for the projects. In other words, Iran is motivated to achieve far-reaching goals. Iran also has a significant technological infrastructure. Nevertheless, the engine is stalled and important projects are being delayed. If this assessment is correct and the Iranian failure is a deep systemic failure, this could point to questions on Iran's capability to materialize other ambitious programs, such as in the realms of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.
Shapir, Yiftah S. "Iran's Efforts to Conquer Space." Strategic Assessment (JCSS). Vol. 8, No. 3 (November 2005). [ 2 quotes ]