In August 2010, President Ahmadinejad announced that Iran's first astronaut should be sent into space on board an Iranian spacecraft by no later than 2019. Later on in December 2010, Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister Reza Taghipour stated that "The initial steps for the plan have been taken, and the study phase on the definition of subsystems, sub-projects, costs, and what projects need to be developed toward that end, has been conducted, which needs to be submitted to the Supreme Council on Space". According to Iranian human space program, the first sub-orbital spaceflight was take place by 2016 at an altitude below 200 kilometers as preparation for the eventual orbital spaceflight. No such vehicle was developed.