Iran puts military satellite into orbit

摘要

Iran announced on 22 April that it had successfully launched a satellite into orbit earlier that day, breaking a run of failures that has plagued a space programme that US officials say is a way of testing ballistic missile technology. The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced that the Noor-1, the country's first military satellite, was launched from a location in the Dasht-e Kavir desert and successfully put into a 425 km orbit. "Today, we look at the Earth from space, and this means expansion of the strategic intelligence and information of the IRGC's powerful defence force," IRGC commander Major General Hossein Salami said. The United States did not immediately confirm the launch's success, but General John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, left little doubt that Iran had put a satellite into orbit. "There's a lot that has to happen before a satellite becomes operational or whether it even works or not and it takes a long time to characterise that," he said during a press conference later that day. "What I can tell you is that it went a very long way, and if you have a missile that goes a very long way, whether it works or not, puts a satellite into space or not, [it] means it has the ability, once again, to threaten their neighbours, our allies," he added.