Iran acknowledges rocket explosion in test
TEHRAN, IRAN— Iran acknowledged for the first time on Monday that a rocket at its Imam Khomeini Space Centre exploded after satellite photos showed the blast last week, with an official saying a technical malfunction during a test caused the explosion. The comments by government spokesperson Ali Rabiei were the first explanation offered by Iran for Thursday’s explosion, which came ahead of a planned satellite launch by the Islamic republic that the U.S. has criticized.
Rabiei also criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for tweeting what appeared to be a surveillance photo of the aftermath of the explosion shot by a U.S. spy satellite.
The explosion marked the third failure involving a rocket at the Iranian centre, which has raised suspicions of sabotage in Iran’s space program.
However, Rabiei dismissed that, saying that “this has been a technical matter and a technical error. Our experts unanimously say so.”
“The explosion happened at the launch pad and no satellite had yet been transferred to the launch pad,” Rabiei said. “It happened at a test site, not at the launch site.”
Commercially available satellite images by Planet Labs Inc. and Maxar Technologies showed a black plume of smoke rising above a launch pad Thursday, with what appeared to be the charred remains of a rocket and its launch stand.
The photo released Friday by Trump appeared to be a once-classified surveillance photo from U.S. intelligence agencies. Analysts said the black rectangle in the photo’s upper-left corner likely covered up the photo’s classification. The image showed damaged vehicles around the launch pad, as well as damage done to the rocket’s launcher. It also clearly showed a large phrase written in Farsi on the pad: “National Product, National Power.”
“The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran,” Trump wrote in his tweet, identifying the rocket used. “I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One.”