Fresh on the heels of Iran's hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
call for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and Israeli president Ariel Sharon's
response that Iran should be expelled from the UN comes a reminder that Iran is interested in more than just nuclear technology.
Iran launches its first satellite
Moscow, Oct 27, IRNA
The first Iranian satellite made in cooperation with Russia was launched from Polstesk space base in Murmansk province in northwestern Russia at 10:52 local time on Thursday.
The satellite named Sina-1 (Z.S.4), separated from the Russian "Cosmos" rocket 35 minutes after blast-off.
In addition to the Iranian satellite, the rocket carried several other Russian, British and Chinese satellites.
The satellite will be mainly used in telecommunication and taking photographs of the earth.
Besides, the satellite can be used to photograph the natural disasters, resources and farmlands. It can transmit and receive a limited range of information on VHF and UHF frequencies.
The satellite is decorated with Iran's flag and map including the Persian Gulf, which are painted on its exterior.
Sina-1 weighing 170 kgs is equipped with two cameras and its life span is three years.
Ha'aretz had a headline and two paragraphs on the satellite launch in a story which was primarily about Iran's nuclear ambitions, but the basic thrust of the article implied that no satellite had been launched as yet. This is interesting given the Iranian story above, which indicates the opposite. I can't tell whether Ha'aretz has incomplete information about the launch, or whether the article refers to a completely different satellite. The Israelis are justifiably concerned that this is a spy satellite, and are questioning the Russians about it.
The current IRNA and Ha'aretz stories both talk about a Russian-made satellite, whether they refer to the same one or not. However, IRNA suggested in May that "the defense ministry is ready to launch a home-made satellite in less than a year," intimating that it might be launched via an Iranian Shahab-3 rocket. Today's satellite launch was mainly a Russian technological venture, putting an imaging system into orbit for Iran. I have to wonder if the homegrown Iranian satellite technology wasn't ready and discarded in favor of proven Russian technology to meet a stepped-up timetable, or whether Iran supplied what it had to Russia, which refined and launched it.
Given the Israeli and Iranian saber-rattling going on right now, this issue (seemingly on the periphery) bears watching closely. They don't need any more excuses to hate each other.
Crossposted from my site