[FPSPACE] Iran launches first satellite

[Mark Wade]

Iran launches first satellite

Film:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5649206.ece

>From Times Online
February 3, 2009

Iran launches own space satellite to mark 30 years since
revolutionMichael Evans, Defence Editor
Iran has claimed success in launching its first home-built satellite
into orbit, using a rocket which the West believes is part of its
long-term ballistic missile programme.

Until official satellite spotters confirm Tehran's claim, made by
President Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader, on state television, the
announcement will be treated with a degree of scepticism. The first
two attempts at launching an Iranian-built satellite, in February and
August last year, failed.

If the Iranian President's claim turns out to be true, however, it
will provide further proof of Tehran's growing ability to master the
technology for developing a long-range ballistic missile.

Despite Mr Ahmadinejad's insistence that the satellite mission was
purely for peaceful purposes, experts said there was an undeniable
link between the rocket launch and Iran's military programme.

Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems, said: "Iran
is just following what the United States, Russia and China did in the
early stages of their missile programmes, transferring the technology
from satellite launches to ballistic missiles."

Iranian news agencies reported that a Safir 2 space rocket launched
the Omid (Hope) satellite into orbit, coinciding with the 30th
anniversary of the Islamic revolution. "With this launch, the Islamic
Republic of Iran has officially achieved a presence in space,"
President Ahmadinejad claimed on state television.

He dismissed as "old talk" the accusation by the West that Iran's
space programme had military goals. The satellite, he said, carried a
message of "peace and brotherhood" to the world.

Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian Foreign Minister, speaking in Addis
Ababa, said the satellite would enable Tehran to receive environmental
data. The state news agency, IRNA, said the satellite would take
orbital measurements and would circle the Earth 15 times every day.

The announcement comes just a day before senior diplomats from the
United Nations Permanent Security Council - Britain, the US, Russia,
China and France - as well as Germany, are due to meet near Frankfurt
to review Iran's continuing uranium-enrichment programme.

The timing of the satellite launch will not be lost on the diplomats
of the six countries who have to decide what extra measures might be
necessary to try and persuade Iran to stop enriching uranium which the
West, and Israel, believes is part of a clandestine ambition to build
a nuclear weapon. The ballistic missile programme is seen as being
inextricably linked to Tehran's nuclear goal.

The Safir 2 appears to be a version of Iran's Shahab 3 ballistic
missile which forms the basis of the weapons programme, although
Tehran uses a number of different names for its missiles, including
Ghadr 1, Ashoura and Sejjil.

The Iranians say they have developed a ballistic missile with a range
of 2,000-kilometres, but Mr Lennox said there was no evidence to back
this claim. Russia has said that Iran has built a missile with a range
of 1,500 kilometres, capable of reaching Israel.

The Safir 2 is a two-stage, possibly three-stage, rocket which uses
liquid propulsion. It's 72ft long and weighs more than 26 tonnes. The
Shahab 3 is a one-stage liquid-propulsion missile.

Last year, Iran caused concern in the West when it sent a probe called
Kavoshgar (Explorer) into space on the back of a rocket which Tehran
said was in preparation for a satellite launch. In October 2005, a
Russian-made Iranian satellite named Sina 1 was put into orbit by a
Russian rocket.

Reza Taghipour, head of the Iranian space agency, said Iran would
launch another satellite rocket on March 20.



-- 
Mark Wade
Encyclopedia Astronautica
http://www.astronautix.com/
astronautix at gmail.com