Iran in ‘successful’ test of satellite-launch rocket
TEHRAN: Iran on Thursday ‘successfully’ tested a satellitelaunch rocket, days after warning Washington of a response to new US sanctions over the Islamic republic’s ballistic missile programme, state television said.
It said the launch vehicle, named Simorgh after a bird in Iranian mythology, was capable of propelling a satellite weighing 250 kilogrammes to an altitude of 500 kilometres above earth.
The launch marked the official inauguration of Iran’s Imam Khomeini space centre, named after the late founder of the Islamic republic, built for sending satellites into space, the television said.
State television broadcast footage of the takeoff from the space centre in eastern Iran’s Semnan province, the site of past such launches.
The centre, whose exact location was not disclosed, is on “an immense site used for the preparation, launch, control and guidance of all satellite launch vehicles”, said the defence ministry which is in charge of Iran’s space programme.
“We can do it,” read a slogan on the rocket.
Western states suspect Iran of developing the technology capable of launching long-range ballistic missiles with conventional or nuclear payloads, a charge denied by Tehran which insists its space programme has purely peaceful aims.
Iran’s four other launches of domestically produced satellites since 2009 have all sparked condemnation in the West.
Hours after Iran’s latest announcement, the United States called the launch an act that undermined regional stability and said it appeared to violate UN Security Council resolutions.
“We consider that to be continued ballistic missile development,” US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters.
“We consider this to be provocative action.” — AFP