This undated picture offered by the Iranian Area Company exhibits a Chamran-1 satellite tv for pc. Iran launched the satellite tv for pc into house on Saturday with a rocket constructed by the nation’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, state-run media reported.
Iranian Area Company/AP
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Iranian Area Company/AP
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran launched a satellite tv for pc into house Saturday with a rocket constructed by the nation’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, state-run media reported, the newest for a program the West fears helps Tehran advance its ballistic missile program.
Iran described the launch as a hit, which might be the second such launch to place a satellite tv for pc into orbit with the rocket. There was no instant unbiased affirmation of the launch’s success.
Footage later launched by Iranian media confirmed the rocket blast off from a cell launcher. An Related Press evaluation of the video and different imagery later launched advised the launch occurred on the Guard’s launch pad on the outskirts of the town of Shahroud, some 215 miles east of the capital, Tehran.
The launch comes amid heightened tensions gripping the broader Center East over the continuing Israel-Hamas battle within the Gaza Strip, throughout which Tehran launched an unprecedented direct missile-and-drone assault on Israel. In the meantime, Iran continues to complement uranium to just about weapons-grade ranges, elevating considerations amongst nonproliferation specialists about Tehran’s program.
Iran recognized the satellite-carrying rocket because the Qaem-100, which the Guard utilized in January for an additional profitable launch. Qaem means “upright” in Iran’s Farsi language.
The solid-fuel, three-stage rocket put the Chamran-1 satellite tv for pc, weighing 60 kilograms (132 kilos), right into a 550-kilometer (340-mile) orbit, state media reported. The rocket bore a Quranic verse: “That which is left by Allah is best for you, in case you are believers.”
A state-owned subsidiary of Iran’s Protection Ministry and specialists on the Aerospace Analysis Institute constructed the satellite tv for pc with others to “check {hardware} and software program programs for orbital maneuver know-how validation,” state media mentioned, with out elaborating.
Gen. Hossein Salami, the pinnacle of the Guard, praised the launch in a press release and mentioned scientists efficiently overcame “the environment of in depth and oppressive worldwide sanctions.”
The U.S. State Division and the American navy didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark over the Iranian launch.
The USA had beforehand mentioned Iran’s satellite tv for pc launches defy a U.N. Safety Council decision and referred to as on Tehran to undertake no exercise involving ballistic missiles able to delivering nuclear weapons. U.N. sanctions associated to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired final October.
Underneath Iran’s comparatively reasonable former President Hassan Rouhani, the Islamic Republic slowed its house program for concern of elevating tensions with the West. Laborious-line President Ebrahim Raisi, a protege of Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who got here to energy in 2021, has pushed this system ahead. Raisi died in a helicopter crash in Could.
It is unclear what Iran’s new president, the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, desires for this system as he was silent on the problem whereas campaigning.
The U.S. intelligence group’s worldwide menace evaluation this 12 months mentioned Iran’s growth of satellite tv for pc launch automobiles “would shorten the timeline” for Iran to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile as a result of it makes use of related know-how.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles can be utilized to ship nuclear weapons. Iran is now producing uranium near weapons-grade ranges after the collapse of its nuclear take care of world powers. Tehran has sufficient enriched uranium for “a number of” nuclear weapons, if it chooses to supply them, the pinnacle of the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company repeatedly has warned.
Iran has all the time denied in search of nuclear weapons and says its house program, like its nuclear actions, is for purely civilian functions. Nonetheless, U.S. intelligence businesses and the IAEA say Iran had an organized navy nuclear program up till 2003.
The launch additionally got here forward of the second anniversary of the loss of life of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, which sparked nationwide protests in opposition to Iran’s obligatory scarf, or hijab, legislation and the nation’s Shiite theocracy.
