TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran launched a satellite into space on Saturday with a rocket built by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, state media reported, the latest in a program that the West fears will help Tehran advance its ballistic missile program.
Iran hailed the launch as a success, as it would be the second such launch to put a satellite into orbit using this rocket. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the launch’s success.
Footage later released by Iranian media showed the rocket being launched from a mobile launcher. An Associated Press analysis of the video and other images later released suggested the launch took place at the Guard’s launch pad outside the town of Shahroud, about 350 kilometers (215 miles) east of the capital, Tehran.
The launch comes amid rising tension in the Middle East over the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, during which Tehran launched an unprecedented direct missile and drone attack on Israel. Meanwhile, Iran continues to enrich uranium to near-weapons-grade levels, raising concerns among nonproliferation experts about Tehran’s program.
Iran identified the rocket carrying the satellite as the Qaem-100, which the National Guard used in January for another successful launch. Qaem means “vertical” in Iran’s Farsi language.
The three-stage, solid-fuel rocket placed the Chamran-1 satellite, which weighs 60 kilograms (132 pounds), into a 550-kilometer (340-mile) orbit, state media reported. The rocket carried a Koranic verse: “What Allah leaves behind is best for you, if you are believers.”
A state-owned subsidiary of Iran’s Defense Ministry and experts from the Aerospace Research Institute built the satellite with others to “test hardware and software systems for validation of orbital maneuvering technology,” state media said, without giving further details.
General Hossein Salami, head of the Guard, praised the launch in a statement, saying the scientists had successfully overcome “the atmosphere of extensive and oppressive international sanctions.”
The U.S. State Department and the U.S. military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Iranian launch.
The United States had previously said Iran’s satellite launches defy a U.N. Security Council resolution and had called on Tehran not to undertake any activities involving ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. U.N. sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired last October.
Under the relatively moderate former president Hassan Rouhani, the Islamic Republic slowed its space program for fear of raising tensions with the West. Hardline President Ebrahim Raisi, a protégé of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who came to power in 2021, has pushed the program. Raisi died in a helicopter crash in May.
It is unclear what Iran’s new president, reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, wants for the program, as he remained silent on the issue during the campaign.
The U.S. intelligence community’s global threat assessment this year said Iran’s development of satellite launch vehicles would “shorten the timeline” for Iran to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile because it uses similar technology.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles can be used to deliver nuclear weapons. Iran is currently producing uranium close to weapons-grade levels following the collapse of its nuclear deal with world powers. Tehran has enough enriched uranium for “several” nuclear weapons, if it decides to produce them, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned.
Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons and claims that its space program, like its nuclear activities, is for purely civilian purposes. However, U.S. intelligence agencies and the IAEA say Iran had an organized military nuclear program as late as 2003.
The launch also came ahead of the second anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, which sparked nationwide protests against Iran’s mandatory headscarf, or hijab, law and the country’s Shiite theocracy.
(Except for the headline, Republic has not edited AP’s copy.)
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