[FPSPACE] Iran space: Ahmadenijad claims recent space launch used vehicle built in nine months

[Peter Pesavento]

>From the Associated Press:

 

http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/Iran_built_space_rocket_in_just_mon_022
62008.html

 

Iran built space rocket in just months

Iran President Says Recently Launched Research Rocket Was Built in Just 9
Months

NASSER KARIMI
AP News

Feb 26, 2008 18:01 EST

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the research rocket Iran
recently launched was built in just nine months without using any foreign
models.

Iran's launch of a rocket in early February provoked unease in an
international community already suspicious over the Islamic Republic's
nuclear program since the technology involved can also be used to deliver
warheads.

"Iranian space engineers built the research rocket in nine months," said
Ahmadinejad, according to the IRNA, the state news agency. "The rocket was
not a reproduction of a foreign one."

Analysts have expressed doubts about certain technological achievements
announced by Iran in the past. The country launched its first domestically
built rocket last February, which soared to the edge of space but did not
reach orbit level.

John Pike, director of defense research group GlobalSecurity.org, said that
nine months was a "feasible" amount of time to build a rocket if the
engineers began with some of the parts assembled.

Pike also noted that while Iran may not have used a foreign model, the
country had "worked very closely with Pakistan and North Korea for many
years."

Iranian space officials claimed the rocket reached an orbit of 125-155 miles
above the earth and successfully transmitted back scientific data.

Iran says it wants to put its own satellites into orbit to monitor natural
disasters in the earthquake-prone nation and improve telecommunications, as
well as for security.

Iranian government says it hopes to launch four more satellites by 2010 to
increase the number of telephone lines and Internet capacity.

___

Associated Press Writer Lily Hindy in New York contributed to this report.