Iran appears to have attempted a second satellite launch despite US criticism that its space program helps the country develop ballistic missiles, satellite images released yesterday suggest.
Iran has not acknowledged conducting a launch this week.
Images released by the Colorado-based company DigitalGlobe show a rocket at the Imam Khomeini Space Center in Semnan Province on Tuesday.
Photo: AP / DigitalGlobe
Images from Wednesday show the rocket was gone with what appears to be burn marks on its launch pad.
It was not immediately clear if the satellite, if launched, made it into orbit.
In the images, words written in Farsi in large characters on the launch pad appeared to say in part “40 years” and “Iranian made,” in different sections.
That is likely in reference to the 40th anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, which authorities have been celebrating this month.
Iranian state media did not immediately report on the rocket launch; such delays have happened in previous launches.
Iran has said it would launch its Doosti, or “friendship” satellite.
A launch last month failed to put another satellite, Payam or “message,” into orbit after successfully launching it from the same space center.
DigitalGlobe analysts said the images from Tuesday suggest Iran used a Safir, or “ambassador,” rocket in the launch.
In last month’s launch, engineers used a Simorgh, or “phoenix,” rocket.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the rocket choice.
The Doosti, a remote-sensing satellite developed by engineers at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran was to be launched into a low orbit.
The US says such launches defy a UN Security Council resolution calling on Iran to undertake no activity related to ballistic missiles that would be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Iran, which long has said it does not seek nuclear weapons, maintains that its satellite launches and rocket tests do not have a military component. It also says they do not violate a UN resolution that only “called upon” it not to conduct such tests.
Over the past decade, Iran has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit and in 2013 launched a monkey into space.
Iran usually displays space achievements in February during the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The likely launch also comes after Iranian Minister of Information and Telecommunications Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi reportedly said on Sunday that three researchers died “because of a fire in one of the buildings of the Space Research Center,” without elaborating.
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