TEHRAN (Agencies)
Iran fired a "research rocket" on Monday designed to send its first homemade research satellite into orbit in the next year, state television said, a move likely to add to Western concerns about Tehran's nuclear plans.
Also Monday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated Iran's first space center from where the Islamic republic intends to launch research satellites into space for the first time, state media reported.
The space center includes an underground control station and launch pad which will be used to fire an Iranian satellite named Omid (Hope) into space, the official news agency IRNA reported.
"Building and firing a satellite is a big and precious achievement," Ahmadinejad said in a speech.
"We witness today that Iran has taken its first step in space very firmly, precisely and with awareness. We need to have an active and effective presence in space," he said.
Iran has been pursuing a nascent space program in the last few years and in October 2005 an Iranian Russian-made satellite was put into orbit by a Russian rocket.
But Omid would be Iran's first home-built probe and the first to be launched in Iran.
To mark the inauguration of the space center, the "research rocket" aimed at probing the appropriate orbit for the satellite was fired into space, state media said.
No pictures of the launch were shown, but state television showed images of a large rocket strongly resembling Iran's longer range missile Shahab-3 waiting to be fired on a mobile launcher.
The television did not disclose where the space station was situated but the ISNA news agency said it was in a desert area in the northern Semnan province. The pictures only showed a flat area surrounded by flags.
"The Omid satellite is the Islamic republic's first locally-made satellite which will be set at a low orbit," IRNA said adding that it would be launched in the next Iranian calendar year which begins on March 20.
The Russian-launched satellite Sina-1 was Iran's first -- and so far only -- probe to be launched into space, and was described by the Iranian press at the time as being for research and telecommunications.
Iran has said it plans to construct and launch several more satellites over the next three years.
The opening of the space center comes amid mounting tensions with the United States over Tehran's nuclear program, which the West fears could be used for weapons development.
OPEC's number two producer denies the charges, saying its atomic drive is solely aimed at supply energy for a growing population. |
