On Saturday, state-controlled media in the Islamic Republic announced the successful launch of a satellite by the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The delivery platform employed to put the Chamran-1 into position was reportedly a Qaem-100 rocket, a solid-fuel three-stage device that was used in a similar deployment in January.
The 132-pound payload, constructed by a subsidiary of Tehran’s ministry of defense, is expected to be situated in a 340-mile orbit.
Footage of the sendoff was identified by The Associated Press as likely taking place from a mobile launcher located on the outskirts of the Iranian city of Shahroud.
The head of the IRGC, Gen. Hossein Salami, praised the event in a statement, declaring his forces have overcome “the atmosphere of extensive and oppressive international sanctions.”
The United States condemned the action, informing the AP that the White House has “long made clear our concern that Iran’s space launch vehicle programs provide a pathway to expand its longer-range missile systems.”
United Nations sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile efforts expired last year.
