Please register to access this content.
To continue viewing the content you love, please sign in or create a new account
Dismiss
This content is for our paying subscribers only

World Mena

Iran launches three satellites into orbit for the first time

News comes week after launch of research satellite by Guards that drew Western criticism



This photo released by the Iranian Defence Ministry on January 28, 2024, claims to show a satellite carrier is launched at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran's rural Semnan province.
Image Credit: AP

TEHRAN: Iran on Sunday said it simultaneously launched three satellites into orbit, nearly a week after the launch of a research satellite by the Revolutionary Guards drew Western criticism.

“Three Iranian satellites have been successfully launched into orbit for the first time,” state TV reported.

Click here to get exclusive content with Gulf News WhatsApp channel

The satellites were carried by the two-stage Simorgh (Phoenix) satellite carrier and were launched into a minimum orbit of 450 kilometres (280 miles), it added.

The Mahda satellite, which weighs around 32 kilogrammes and was developed by Iran’s Space Agency, is designed to test advanced satellite subsystems, the official IRNA news agency said.

Also read

Advertisement

The other two, Kayhan 2 and Hatef, weigh under 10 kilogrammes each and are aimed to test space-based positioning technology and narrowband communication, IRNA added.

Last week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sent the research satellite Soraya into space.

Britain, France, and Germany condemned that launch in a statement rejected by Iran as “interventionist”.

Western governments including the United States have repeatedly warned Iran against such launches, saying the same technology can be used for ballistic missiles, including ones designed to deliver a nuclear warhead.

Iran has countered that it is not seeking nuclear weapons and that its satellite and rocket launches are for civil or defence purposes only.

Advertisement

The Islamic republic has struggled with several satellite launch failures in the past.

The successful launch of its first military satellite into orbit, Nour-1, in April 2020 drew a sharp rebuke from the United States.

Tehran has been under crippling US sanctions since Washington’s 2018 withdrawal from a landmark nuclear deal which granted Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear activities designed to prevent it from developing an atomic warhead.

Iran has always denied any ambition to develop nuclear weapons capability, insisting that its activities are entirely peaceful.

Advertisement