Region | Iran
US official: Iran's satellite launch a dramatic failure
Iran's attempt to launch a dummy satellite into orbit was a "dramatic failure" that fell far short of the country's assertions of success, a US official said on Tuesday
- Agencies
- Published: 21:15 August 19, 2008
-
Iran test fires rocket, fuels US worries
Latest Iranian rocket test alarms Israeli and US officials
-
Iran to put Muslim satellites in orbit
Iran ready to put Muslim countries' satellites in orbit
-
Iran increases range of warplanes
Iran increases range of warplanes, says report
Washington/Tehran: Iran's attempt to launch a dummy satellite into orbit was a "dramatic failure" that fell far short of the country's assertions of success, a US official said on Tuesday
"The attempted launch failed," the official said. "The vehicle failed shortly after liftoff and in no way reached its intended position," the official said. "It could be characterised as a dramatic failure."
Iran, embroiled in a standoff with the West over its nuclear ambitions, said on Sunday it has put a dummy satellite into orbit on a home-grown rocket for the first time, using a technology that could also be used for launching weapons. Iran says it has no nuclear-weapons plans and that it seeks nuclear technology to generate electricity.
Hunt for nuclear sites
Iranian television showed the rocket on its launch pad, but did not show the actual lift-off. "The failed launch shows that the purported Iranian space program is in its nascent stages at best - they have a long way to go," the US official said.
Meanwhile, Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation yesterday tasked six local companies to hunt for potential sites for new nuclear power plants, the official news agency Irna reported.
"These six domestic companies have been given 13 months to find appropriate locations to build new atomic power plants," the director of the agency's nuclear energy production department, Ahmad Fayaz Bakhsh, was quoted as saying.
"After finalising the locations, construction of the power plants can begin," he said, without mentioning how many would be built. The announcement came with Iran facing a fourth set of UN sanctions over its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment, a process used to manufacture nuclear fuel but which can also be diverted to make the core of an atomic bomb.
Iran, Opec's number two oil exporter, has vehemently denied Western allegations it is seeking to to build nuclear weapons and insists it only wants to produce energy for its growing population.
A Russian contractor is currently building Iran's first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr on the Gulf, but completion has been repeatedly delayed.
Gulam Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's atomic agency, was quoted as saying last week that Bushehr was expected to start up by the end of the year.
Share this article
Related Articles
Popular in News
News Editor's choice
-
King Tut's tomb set for project
Observers note strange brown spots marring lavish wall paintings
-
Thieves caught with Dh6m in gold
Twenty-five gold bars were stolen from the luggage of a Malaysian tradesman
-
What to expect at the Dubai Airshow
We preview what types of aircraft to expect at the Dubai Airshow
