Iran conducts satellite launch

Iran said on Saturday it had conducted a successful satellite launch into its highest orbit yet, The Associated Press reported.

The Iranian Soraya satellite was placed in an orbit at some 750 kilometers above the Earth’s surface with its three-stage Qaem 100 rocket, the state-run IRNA news agency said. It did not immediately acknowledge what the satellite did, though telecommunications minister Isa Zarepour described the launch as having a 50-kilogram payload.

The launch was part of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ space program alongside Iran’s civilian space program, according to the report.

Footage released by Iranian media showed the rocket blast off from a mobile launcher, a religious verse referring to Shiite Islam’s 12th hidden imam written on its side.

Iran has several times tried to launch satellites into space, most recently in September when the Revolutionary Guards launched a new military imaging satellite, the Nour-3.

Last January, a top Iranian official claimed that Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had launched a solid-fuel satellite carrier rocket into space and that the test was successful.

A month earlier, Iran claimed it had successfully launched three research satellites into space. According to Ahmad Hosseini, a Defense Ministry spokesman, the rocket used was a Simorgh.

A day later, however, Iran acknowledged that the space launch failed to put its three payloads into orbit after the rocket was unable to reach the required speed.

Iran’s satellite launches have been condemned by the US and its allies, who say that Iran’s satellite launches defy UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

Resolution 2231 enshrined Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States and calls on Iran to refrain for up to eight years from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons.