Satellite images suggest Iran is preparing for rocket launch

Shafaq News / Satellite images appear to show Iran readying for a space launch on Tuesday, with a rocket seen on a rural desert launching pad, as tension remains high over the country’s nuclear programme.

At Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran’s rural Semnan province, the site of frequent recent failed attempts to put a satellite into orbit, images from Maxar Technologies showed a launching pad.

A rocket on a transporter, preparing to be lifted and put on a launch tower, was shown in one image. A later picture on Tuesday afternoon showed the rocket apparently on the tower.

Iran did not acknowledge a coming launch at the spaceport and its mission to the UN in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But its state-run Irna news agency in May said that Iran would probably have seven homemade satellites ready for launch by the end of its calendar year in March 2023.

A Defence Ministry official also recently suggested Iran soon could test its new solid-fuelled, satellite-carrying rocket called the Zuljanah.

It was not clear when the launch would take place, although erecting a rocket typically means a launch is imminent.

Nasa fire satellites, which detect flashes of light from space, did not immediately see any activity over the site late on Tuesday night.

Over the past decade, Iran has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit and in 2013 launched a monkey into space. But the programme has recently had troubles.

There have been five failed launches in a row for the Simorgh, a type of satellite-carrying rocket. A fire at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in February 2019 also killed three researchers, authorities said at the time.

(The National)