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Iran Says 'Space Rocket' for Research NewsMax.com Wires TEHRAN, Iran -- An Iranian rocket launched over the weekend was of suborbital range and carried a research package, an Iranian space official said. Iran has not said what kind of research it was conducting with the rocket launch, but it billed it as a "space rocket," suggesting it was connected to what Tehran has said is a project to eventually launch satellites into orbit. The rocket launched Sunday was built to soar to a maximum altitude of 93 miles into the atmosphere, said the deputy head of Iran's Space Research Center, Ali Akbar Golrou, quoted on state television's Web site. "It did not go into orbit and it came back to the earth by parachute," Golrou said Sunday. "The launch of the rocket was aimed at improving science and research for university students," he said. Iranian officials have said the country wants to launch a satellite on an indigenous rocket and indicated they are developing a Shahab-4 missile to do that. The country's effort to build a nascent satellite program comes amid international concern over its ballistic missile program. Its most powerful ballistic missile, the Shahab-3, is believed to have a range of around 900 miles, putting Israel and much of the Middle East in range. Some Western experts have expressed fears Iran's space rocket program may be a cover to more fully develop its military ballistic missiles. Unlike Iran's nuclear program, though, there has been no concerted international attempt to end it. The United States and other countries accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear warhead. Iran denies the claim and says its nuclear program and its space program are peaceful. Story Continues Below
The United Nations in December imposed trade sanctions on Iran, banning the sale of goods connected to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs after Tehran rejected demands it suspend part of its nuclear program. In 2005 Iran launched its first commercial satellite on a Russian rocket, in a joint project with Moscow, which appears to be the main partner in transferring space technology to Iran. Iran signed a $132 million deal with a Russian firm in 2005 to build and launch another telecommunications satellite. Science and Technology Minister Mohammad Soleimani said Iran would speed up its space program, the official IRNA news agency reported. "Investment in space is very serious and requires time, but we are trying to speed this up," IRNA quoted Soleimani as saying. Iran hopes to launch four more satellites by 2010, the government has said, to increase the number of land and mobile telephone lines to 80 million from 22 million. It also hopes to expand its satellite capabilities to increase Internet users to 35 million from 5.5 million in the next five years.
© 2007 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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