Iran said Friday it conducted a successful space launch, the latest for its program the West alleges improves Tehran's ballistic missile program. Iran conducted the launch using its Simorgh program, a satellite-carrying rocket that had had a series of failed launches, at Iran's Imam Khomeini Spaceport in rural Semnan province, the AP reports. That's the site of Iran's civilian space program. The Simorgh carried what Iran described as an "orbital propulsion system," as well as two research systems, to a 250-mile orbit above the Earth. A system that could change the orbit of a spacecraft would allow Iran to geo-synchronize the orbits of its satellites. Tehran has long sought that ability.
Iran also put the payload of the Simorgh at 660 pounds, heavier than its previous successful launches. The country's state-run PressTV called the launch a "milestone for Iran's space sector." There was no immediate independent confirmation the launch was successful. The United States has 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 in October 2023.
- "Iran's work on space-launch vehicles—including its Simorgh—probably would shorten the timeline to produce an intercontinental ballistic missile, if it decided to develop one, because the systems use similar technologies," a US intelligence community report released in July said. ICBMs can be used to deliver nuclear weapons. Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons and says its space program, like its nuclear activities, is for purely civilian purposes.
- Iran's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has been signaling he wants to negotiate with the West over sanctions, has yet to offer strategy when it comes to Iran's ambitions in space. The Simorgh launch represented the first for his administration from the country's civil space program. Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard conducted a successful launch in its parallel program in September.
- Last year, Iran said it plans to send astronauts to space by 2029.
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