Amid Mideast Tensions, a New Claim by Iran

Nation says it launched satellite into space on rocket built by Iranian paramilitary group
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 14, 2024 8:30 AM CDT
Iran Claims Satellite Launch, With a Wary West Watching
This undated photo shows the Chamran-1 satellite. Iran says it launched the satellite into space on Saturday.   (ISA via AP)

Iran launched a satellite into space on Saturday with a rocket built by the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, state-run media reported, the latest for a program the West fears helps Tehran advance its ballistic missile program. Iran described the launch as a success, which would be the second such launch to put a satellite into orbit with the rocket. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the launch's success, per the AP. Footage later released by Iranian media showed the rocket blast off from a mobile launcher. The video suggested the launch happened at the Guard's launchpad on the outskirts of the city of Shahroud, some 215 miles east of the capital, Tehran.

The launch comes amid heightened tensions gripping the wider Middle East over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, during which Tehran launched an unprecedented direct missile-and-drone attack on Israel. Meanwhile, Iran continues to enrich uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels, raising concerns among nonproliferation experts about Tehran's program. Iran identified the satellite-carrying rocket as the Qaem-100, which the Guard used in January for another successful launch. "Qaem" means "upright" in Iran's Farsi language. The solid-fuel rocket put the Chamran-1 satellite, weighing 132 pounds, into a 340-mile orbit, state media reported. The US State Department and the American military didn't immediately respond to requests for comment over the Iranian launch.

The US had previously said Iran's satellite launches defy a UN Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. UN sanctions related to Iran's ballistic missile program expired last October. Under Iran's relatively moderate former President Hassan Rouhani, the Islamic Republic of Iran slowed its space program for fear of raising tensions with the West. Hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, a protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who came to power in 2021, had pushed the program forward. Raisi died in a helicopter crash in May. It's unclear what Iran's new president, the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, wants for the program, as he was silent on the issue while campaigning. More here.

(More Iran stories.)

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