[FPSPACE] First international reactions to Iranian satellite launch; AFP reports Persians say another launching into space by March 20

[Peter Pesavento]

My comment:  "Home built" satellite?  That conjures up a jerry-rigged piece
of equipment..Indigenously built might perhaps be a better phrasing.

 

 

>From Agency France Presse:

 

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_confirms_Iran_launch_of_first_ho_02032009.ht
ml

 

US confirms Iran launch of first home-built satellite

 

Published: Tuesday February 3, 2009
The US confirmed Tuesday that Iran has launched its first home-built
satellite into orbit, raising fresh concerns in an international community
already at odds with Tehran over its nuclear drive.

"It appears that the Iranians conducted a launch of a low orbit satellite,"
said a US official, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.

A jubilant Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier announced the
lift-off, which coincided with the 30th anniversary of the Islamic
revolution, on state television

"Dear Iranians, your children have put the first indigenous satellite into
orbit," said Ahmadinejad.

"With this launch the Islamic Republic of Iran has officially achieved a
presence in space".

The Omid (Hope) satellite was sent into space on Monday evening carried by
the home-built Safir-2 space rocket, local news agencies reported.

In the first foreign reaction, France expressed concern because the
technology used was "very similar" to that employed in ballistic missiles.

"We can't but link this to the very serious concerns about the development
of military nuclear capacity," foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier
said in Paris.

In London, British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell voiced "serious
concerns" over the launch.

"This test underlines and illustrates our serious concerns about Iran's
intentions," Rammell said in a statement issued by the Foreign Office,
adding Britain was still carrying out technical analyses.

The launch comes at at time when Iran is defiantly refusing UN Security
Council demands to freeze sensitive nuclear work.

The West suspects Iran of secretly trying to build an atomic bomb and fears
the technology used to launch a space rocket could be diverted into
development of long-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear
warheads.

Iran vehemently denies the charges, saying its nuclear programme is for
peaceful energy purposes and that it has the right to the technology already
in the hands of many other nations including its archfoe the United States.

Ahmadinejad said the satellite carried a message of "peace and brotherhood"
to the world and dismissed suggestions that Iran's space programme had
military goals.

"We have a divine view of technology unlike the dominating powers of the
world who have Satanic views," he said.

In Addis Ababa on the sidelines of an African Union summit, Iranian Foreign
Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the satellite would enable Tehran to
receive "environmental data," adding that "the technological capacity of
Iran is meant to meet the needs of the country."

Ahmadinejad has made scientific development one of the main themes of his
presidency, asserting that Iran has reached a peak of progress despite
international sanctions and no longer needs help from foreign states.

The state news agency IRNA said the satellite would take orbital
measurements and would circle the Earth 15 times every 24 hours.

Iranian aerospace expert Asghar Ebrahimi said Omid has an elliptical orbit
of minimum of 250 kilometres (156 miles) and maximum 400 kilometres.

The launch comes on the eve of a meeting in Germany on Wednesday of senior
diplomats from six world powers who are are due to discuss the Iranian
nuclear standoff, with Tehran still defying calls for a freeze on uranium
enrichment.

New US President Barack Obama said last month shortly after taking office
that he was willing to extend the hand of diplomacy to Iran, after 30 years
of severed diplomatic relations.

Iran sent its first Safir rocket into space in August. It is about 22 metres
(72 feet) long, with a diameter of 1.25 metres (a little over four feet) and
weighs more than 26 tonnes .

Iran's most powerful military missile, the Shahab-3, has a diameter of 1.30
metres and measures 17 metres in length. It has a range of 2,000 kilometres
(1,250 miles) -- putting archfoe Israel and US forces in the region within
reach.

Last year Iran triggered concern in the West when it said it had sent a
probe into space on the back of a rocket to prepare for a satellite launch,
and announced the opening of its space station in a remote western desert.

Iran has pursued a space programme for several years, and 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 carrier by the end of the Iranian year on March 20, Fars
said.



 

 

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