[FPSPACE] Now: "Dummy satellite" sent into space by Iran?

[Phillip Clark]

The launching might have reached space but did it stay there?   There is no evidence of that so far.

As Jonathan McDowell has already pointed out, we need someone who can translate accurately what the original Iranian releases have said about this launch.

Phil Clark
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Peter Pesavento 
  To: fpspace at friends-partners.org 
  Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 4:31 PM
  Subject: [FPSPACE] Now: "Dummy satellite" sent into space by Iran?


  http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Iran_rocket_launch_troubling_US_08172008.html

   

  The plot thickens..AFP is now reporting a dummy satellite was sent into space.

   

   

  Courtesy Agency France Presse

   

  Iran rocket launch 'troubling': US

  Published: Sunday August 17, 2008

  The White House said Sunday that Iran's announcement it had launched a home-built rocket into space was "troubling" because such technology could also be used for ballistic missiles.

  "The Iranian development and testing of rockets is troubling and raises further questions about their intentions," spokesman Gordon Johndroe said as US President George W. Bush spent time on his Texas ranch.

  "This action and dual use possibilities for their ballistic missile program have been a subject of IAEA discussions and are inconsistent with their UN Security Council obligations," Johndroe said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency -- the UN nuclear watchdog.

  He spoke after Tehran said it had sent a home-built rocket carrying a dummy satellite into space on Sunday, in a move that could further exacerbate tensions with the West over its nuclear drive.

  "The Safir (Ambassador) rocket was successfully launched. All its systems ... are Iranian made," Reza Taghipour, head of Iran's space agency, told state television, adding that a "test satellite was put into orbit."

  "We have paved the way for placing a satellite in space in future," state television said, showing images of the pre-dawn rocket launch.

  Western governments suspect Iran is trying to build an atomic weapon and have voiced concern that the technology used in the Islamic republic's space program could be diverted to military use, claims denied by Tehran.

  Sunday's development came amid an international standoff over Tehran's long-standing refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, a process which makes nuclear fuel but also the core of an atomic bomb.



   



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