TEHRAN, Jan 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Iran launched a satellite criticised by
the United States on Tuesday but it failed to reach orbit, state television
quoted the telecommunications minister as saying.
“The Payam satellite was successfully launched this morning with the Basir
satellite carrier. But the satellite unfortunately failed to be placed in
orbit in the final stage,” Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said.
Payam and its carrier had gone through successful testing of its first and
second stages, the minister said.
But in the actual launch, the satellite failed to reach the required speed
on detachment from the rocket in the third stage.
Both Payam and its carrier were designed and produced at Tehran’s Amirkabir
University of Technology.
Iran still plans to launch another low Earth orbit satellite, Doosti
(Friendship in Persian), Jahromi said.
He did not give a date for the launch but said the satellite was planned to
orbit the earth at an altitude of 250 kilometres (156 miles).
“We will do our best to place it in the orbit,” he added.
Payam and Doosti were both intended to gather information on environmental
change in Iran, President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday.
“The satellite will give us all the information we need, and we will prove
to the world that we are a country of science,” Rouhani said.
Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Iran’s plans to
send satellites into orbit would violate the UN Security Council resolution
that endorsed a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between major powers and Tehran.
Tehran reined in most of its nuclear programme under the deal, since
abandoned by Washington last year, but has continued to develop its ballistic
missile and rocket technology.
Security Council Resolution 2231 calls on Iran to refrain from testing
missiles capable of carrying a nuclear weapon, but does not specifically bar
Tehran from missile or rocket launches.
Washington says the Iranian space launches violate the resolution.
Iran’s satellite-delivery rockets used technology “virtually identical” to
nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, Pompeo said on January 3.
“The United States will not stand by and watch the Iranian regime’s
destructive policies place international stability and security at risk.”
Tehran denied the planned launch was a violation of Resolution 2231.
“The satellite is part of a civil project with purely scientific aims,
foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told the semi-official ISNA news
agency.
“Iran will wait for no country’s permission to conduct such scientific
projects.”
Iran has launched several short-lived satellites into orbit over the past
decade, including the Simorgh and the Pajouhesh, the official news agency
IRNA reported.