Iran claims successful rocket launch despite US criticism
TEHRAN, Iran (Kurdistan 24) - Iran claimed on Thursday it successfully launched an advanced satellite-carrying rocket into space.
According to state-run Iranian media, the rocket is capable of carrying a satellite weighing 550 pounds.
The report did not elaborate on the rocket’s payload, nor did it clarify the timing of the launch at National Space Station in Semnan, some 138 miles east of Tehran.
Iran frequently claims technological breakthroughs that have not been independently verified.
Washington has frequently criticized Iran's ballistic missile tests.
American officials argue such tests violate the spirit of the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran struck with world powers.
Although the deal does not openly ban such tests, it obligated Iran to limit nuclear enrichment in return for removing sanctions.
The U.S. National Air and Space Intelligence Center warned last month in a report that Iran rocket could act as a test bed for developing the technologies needed to produce an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM.
“Tehran’s desire to have a strategic counter to the United States could drive it to field an ICBM. Progress in Iran’s space program could shorten a pathway to an ICBM because space launch vehicles (SLV) use inherently similar technologies,” the report said.
On Monday, Scott Kripowicz of the directorate for international affairs at the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency told a conference in Israel: "Space-launch activities which involve multi-stage systems that further the development of technologies for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) are becoming a more realistic threat".
"In this region, Iran has successfully orbited small satellites and announced plans to orbit a larger satellite using the Simorgh space-launch vehicle, which could be configured to be an ICBM," Kripowicz said.