The Soraya satellite was placed in an orbit at some 750 kilometers (460 miles) above the Earth’s surface with a three-stage rocket, the state-run IRNA news agency said. It did not immediately acknowledge what the satellite did.
The launch was part of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ space program alongside Iran’s civilian space program, the report said.
There was no immediate independent confirmation Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
had successfully put the satellite in orbit.
The United States has previously said Iran’s satellite launches defy a UN Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
UN sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired last October.
The US intelligence community’s 2023 worldwide threat assessment said the development of satellite launch vehicles "shortens the timeline" for Iran to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile because it uses similar technology.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles can be used to deliver nuclear weapons. Iran’s nuclear program now enriched uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels after the collapse of its nuclear deal with world powers.
Tehran has enough enriched uranium for "several" nuclear weapons, if it chooses to produce them, the head of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency repeatedly has warned.
Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons and says its space program, like its nuclear activities, is for purely civilian purposes. However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat...
US intelligence agencies and the IAEA say Iran had an organized military nuclear program up until 2003.
The involvement of the Guard in the launches, as well as it being able to launch the rocket from a mobile launcher, raise concerns for the West.
Over the past decade, Iran has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit and in 2013, launched a monkey into space. The program has seen recent troubles, however. There have been five failed launches in a row for the Simorgh program, another satellite-carrying rocket.
A fire at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in February 2019 killed three researchers, authorities said at the time. A launchpad rocket explosion later that year drew the attention of then-US president Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
, who taunted Iran with a tweet showing what appeared to be a US surveillance photo of the site.
In December, Iran sent a capsule into orbit capable of carrying animals as it prepares for human missions in the coming years.