[FPSPACE] New York Times article on Persian space launch

[Peter Pesavento]

Fpspacer Charles Vick is quoted in the piece.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/world/middleeast/04iran.html?_r=1
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/world/middleeast/04iran.html?_r=1&hp=&pag
ewanted=print> &hp=&pagewanted=print

 

February 4, 2009


Iran's Satellite Launch Is Challenge for Obama 


By ALAN COWELL
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/alan_cowell/in
dex.html?inline=nyt-per>  and WILLIAM J. BROAD
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/william_j_broa
d/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 

 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/ir
an/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> Iran said Tuesday that it had launched its
first domestically produced satellite, a move that has prompted concerns in
the United States and other nations about Iran's nuclear ambitions and its
ability to deploy long-range ballistic missiles. 

The launch on Monday, coinciding with celebrations marking the 30th
anniversary of the Islamic revolution, also creates an early challenge for
President Obama
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/i
ndex.html?inline=nyt-per> , who has sought to strike a conciliatory tone
toward Iran by conditionally offering dialogue after years of tensions. The
United States and other nations believe Tehran wants to develop nuclear
weapons, a charge that Iran's leaders deny.

Iran said it had also used a domestically produced rocket to launch the
satellite. That would make it part of the exclusive club of states that can
loft objects into orbit, which now numbers at least nine. Weapons experts
say the same technology used to put satellites into orbit can also be used
for launching weapons. 

In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood called the reports a
matter of "great concern" and potentially in violation of United Nations
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_
nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  agreements limiting Iran from missile
activity. 

"Developing a space launch vehicle that could be put a satellite into orbit
could possibly lead to the development of a ballistic missile system," he
said.

The head of Israel's Space Agency, Zvi Kaplan, said initial reports showed
that a satellite had been launched.

"From what I have been investigating it is true," he said, according to The
Associated Press. "We are not surprised because in this day and age of
information and technology and with Iranian scientists studying abroad they
can obtain the knowledge." 

The official Iranian news agency, IRNA, said the satellite was launched
using a Safir-2 rocket and was "successfully sent into orbit." 

The satellite, which weighed about 60 pounds, is named Omid, or Hope, IRNA
said, and was sent into space as a "data-processing satellite project" that
began in March 2005 as "the first practical step toward acquiring national
space technology." 

"The project's experts focused on manufacturing the equipment and helping
develop the potential of domestic companies to carry out such projects," the
IRNA report said. 

David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International
Security, a private group in Washington that tracks nuclear proliferation,
said he felt the technology used by Iran to launch the satellite remained
rudimentary by international standards.

"It's not a very capable missile. The payload and diameter aren't that
great," he said. "It doesn't say much, if anything, about their ability to
deliver a nuclear weapon. But part of the concern here is that Iran is
continuing its steady drip-drip-drip toward a nuclear weapons capability."

Aerospace experts said that while Tehran was still not capable of launching
an intercontinental ballistic missile, the satellite still took many years
of preparation and required the mastery of staging - the art of creating a
multistage rocket that drops stages (and thus weight) as it races ever
higher.

Last August, Iran test-fired a new rocket capable of carrying a satellite
into orbit. Western experts said at the time that the launching represented
a potentially significant, if much-delayed, step in Iran's efforts to join
the international space club. And in 2005, Tehran launched a Russian-made
satellite with a Russian-made rocket.

"They've been at this game for about five years, working on a rocket big
enough to put a satellite into space," said Charles P. Vick, an expert on
Iranian rockets at GlobalSecurity.org, a private research group in
Alexandria, Va.

He added that the Iranian rocket had two stages. If carrying a warhead, he
said, the Iranian missile could fire the weapon about 1,550 miles.

For Iran to achieve the technical step of launching an intercontinental
ballistic missile, Mr. Vick said, it would have to develop a more powerful
basic rocket or more upper stages - goals it is pursuing.

Since Mr. Obama's inauguration, outside powers have been looking for clues
as to whether Tehran is prepared to make new concessions in the dispute over
Iran's alleged efforts to develop nuclear weapons. They have also been
waiting to see how the new American president will pursue his overtures of
dialogue, which are designed to halt Iran's uranium enrichment program.

Nations dealing with the Iran issue - the United States, Russia, Britain,
China, France and Germany - will meet Wednesday in Frankfurt, Germany, for
their first talks since Mr. Obama took office.

Iranian state television on Tuesday showed footage of a rocket blasting off
from a firing platform in a huge blast of smoke flame as it clambered into
the night sky. 

"Dear Iranian nation, your children have placed the first indigenous
satellite into orbit," Reuters quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/mahmoud_ahmadi
nejad/index.html?inline=nyt-per>  as saying in a televised message.

"With God's help and the desire for justice and peace, the official presence
of the Islamic Republic was registered in space," he said.

The Omid was designed to gather information and test equipment, according to
Reuters, and will circle the earth 14 times a day. Iranian television news
said the satellite would return to earth with data after orbiting for one to
three months. 

Davoud Hermidas Bavand, a political analyst and professor of international
law at Tehran's Allameh Tabatabai University, said that the launching of the
satellite could elevate Iran's status and lead to a change of tone toward
Iran
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/ir
an/nuclear_program/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> 's nuclear program.

"Their success shows that Iran has achieved major technological progress,"
he said. "It is also a matter of prestige for Iran because it has joined the
space club, which has very few members."

Iran also announced Tuesday that it would test its new version of a
radar-evading plane in the first half of the new Iranian year, which starts
on March 21. The commander of the Iranian air force, Brigadier General
Hassan Shah-Safi, said Tuesday that Iran had also increased the flight range
of its fighters to over 1,200 miles, the IRNA news agency reported. 

William J. Broad reported from New York, and Alan Cowell from London. Nazila
Fathi contributed reporting from Tehran, and Sharon Otterman from New York.

 

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