[FPSPACE] Iranian satellite launch attempt

[Jonathan McDowell]

Jim, I think we need native Farsi speakers before we can make
any such conclusion. The same stories that talked about a satellite
launch also talked about it being launched from a "space station"
(meaning spaceport or launch site).
Even the latest stories that are being read as implying suborbital
are far from clear and could still be meant to imply a satellite.
I think we are seeing (1) clueless Iranian journalists who don't understand
space terminology even in Farsi and (2) clueless translators who do't
understand how to get it into English.
 I'm not saying it *wasnt* a failed orbital attempt (or even maybe
successful, since it would take time for an NFL to be cataloged),
just that parsing the news reports we've seen is an exercise in 
low-signal-to-noise analysis.
  Jonathan
,