Iran said Sunday it successfully launched three satellites into space, the latest for a program the West says is improving Tehran’s ballistic missiles.
The state-run IRNA news agency said the launch also marked the successful deployment of Iran’s Simorgh rocket, which has suffered several failures in the past.
The launch comes as heightened tensions grip the wider Middle East over Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Although Iran has not intervened militarily in the conflict, it has faced increasing pressure within its theocracy to act after Islamic State suicide bombings earlier this month and as proxy groups such as Yemen’s Houthi rebels carry out attacks linked to the war.
Footage released by Iranian state television shows a nighttime launch of a Simorgh rocket.
An Associated Press analysis of the details of the footage shows that it took place at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Semnan province in rural Iran.
Footage released by Iranian state television shows a nighttime launch of a Simorgh rocket. AP
State TV named the launched satellites Mahda, Kayhan-2 and Hatef-1.
It described Mahda as a research satellite, while Kayhan and Hatef are nano satellites focused on global positioning and communication respectively.
There have been five failed launches in a row for the Simorgh program, another satellite-carrying rocket.
The failure of the Simorgh, or “Phoenix,” rocket has been part of a series of setbacks in recent years for Iran’s civilian space program, including a deadly fire and explosion of a launcher that drew the attention of former US President Donald Trump.
The launch comes as heightened tensions grip the wider Middle East over Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. AP
The United States previously said Iran’s satellite launch was against UN Security Council resolutions and called on Tehran to refrain from any activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
UN sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program ended last October.
The US intelligence community’s 2023 worldwide threat assessment said the development of a satellite launch vehicle “shortens the timeline” for Iran to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile because it uses similar technology.
The US military and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
However, the US military quietly acknowledged the successful launch of an Iranian satellite from January 20 by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
