Iran claims to have launched satellite - UPDATE: VIDEO ADDED; UPDATE: IRAN ADMITS SATELLITE A DUMMY
Iran is claiming that it placed its first domestically produced satellite into orbit on Sunday morning.The satellite named Omid (Hope) has been designed and built by Iranian specialists and was orbited by an Iranian carrier rocket.
In February Tehran successfully launched the Explorer-1 research rocket, which is capable of carrying a satellite into orbit, and unveiled the country's first domestically built satellite, Omid.
The achievement has drawn much attention from around the world, specially from among Muslim nations, as Iran is under heavy sanctions by the West and the UN Security Council making it develop the technology and build every part and equipment needed in the field of aerospace.
The satellite was sent into orbit today on the occasion of the birthday anniversary of Shiites' 12th Imam (May God Hasten His Reappearance).
Joint Chief of Staff on Sunday congratulated Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei and brave Iranian nation on successful launching of the rocket carrying the country's first satellite.
In a message issued on Sunday, the Joint Chief of Staff said the rocket carrying the country's first satellite, was successfully fired on the birth Anniversary of the last Imam of Shiites, Hazrat Mahdi (May God Hasten His Reappearance), thus illustrating the auspicious name of the Imam in the space.
The message said the launching marks the second instance of successful tentative firing of such rockets.
DEBKA reports on the implications of this - as yet unverified - launch: If verified, Iran’s space achievement would offset one of Israel’s prime military assets, its superiority in space technology.That last paragraph is most definitely a silver lining in an awfully dark cloud.
According to our sources, Tehran caught Israel, the United States and both their undercover agencies by surprise. They knew Iran was working on a space program but not how close the Iranians were to placing a satellite in orbit.
Our sources believe that the capsule was boosted by the Shehab-5 missile, whose range the Iranians boast is up to 5,000 km and, according to some military experts, reaches 7,000 km.
The Islamic Republic’s reported feat comes at a bad time for Moscow internationally. The Russians emphatically dismiss America’s argument for installing missile interceptors in Poland as a shield against Iranian ballistic missile attack, claiming they were aimed at Russia. The Kremlin accuses the Bush administration using this false claim as a pretext, because Iran had not so far developed a ballistic threat. Now, that proof may have been provided Sunday, Moscow will have to reconsider its position.
UPDATE 9:10 PM
I now have video so let's go to the videotape.
UPDATE 9:44 PM
Iran has now admitted that the 'satellite' was a dummy.
Iran corrected earlier reports it made Sunday and said that it had launched a dummy satellite into orbit.A dummy. Just like the '12th Imam.' Heh.
At first, Iran's IRNA news agency reported that the Iranian-made communications satellite Omeid was launched but a later report said the satellite was a dummy.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad read the countdown to the launch on Iranian TV.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:41 PM
4 Comments:
Time to send the Iranian leadership clique to a distant galaxy.
Now Europe is starting to get scared. Iran can hit all of it now.
Well it's sputnik level tech. This isn't close to enough to challenge Israel, a country with enough tech to SHOOT DOWN enemy satellites (not easy). But it's more than enough to rain down nukes anywhere on the planet.
As much as I'm opposed to a nuclear Iran, were going to have to start dealing with the fact that nuclear and space technologies are ONLY technologies, and are inevitable of any nation as they reach a certain technological stage. We need a better plan than stopping their development.
Hey... why all the furore about the Iranian satellite.No nation on earth has monopoly of knowledge.The fact that the west and its allies are not comfortable with this achievement is a sing of hypocricy and injustice.If not how can you explain the signing of MOU between UAE and the US on nuclear energy.Wake up from your slumber and face the reality.The world will only be a safe place to live in if every nation has a nuclear weapon.You only can live in peace if you are ready for WAR.
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