Iran has “successfully” launched a new research satellite, state media reported on Saturday. The Soraya satellite, developed by the Iranian Space Organization, “was successfully launched on Saturday by the Ghaem-100 rocket of the Revolutionary Guards,” state television said. It was placed in orbit 750 kilometers above the Earth, which represents “the first time” that Iran has sent a satellite “beyond 500 kilometers”, according to the official Iranian news agency Irna.
Iran has been expanding its aerospace activities for years and maintains that they are peaceful and consistent with a UN Security Council resolution. But Western governments fear that its satellite launch systems will incorporate technologies interchangeable with those used in ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.
The Nour-3 satellite placed in orbit in September
The Ghaem-100 rocket is being developed by the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, which announced in September that it had placed its Nour-3 imaging satellite in orbit, 450 kilometers above the Earth . The Islamic Republic of Iran has been subject to crippling US sanctions since Washington withdrew in 2018 from an international agreement that was supposed to limit Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions.