The Iranians are asking for the ability to launch photography satellites as a response to the Israeli horizon. The Iranian step causes concern in the West * Space warfare researcher Tal Inbar: The launcher can launch a satellite with only a symbolic weight of 20 kg into space and not a spy satellite, but this is a proof of capability
Iran converted a 30-ton rocket into a satellite launcher that will be used to launch a satellite into space soon. Aviation Week magazine reports that this step may have many security implications. Aladdin Boroujadardi, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee of the Iranian Parliament spoke about the upcoming launch to religious students and Muslim clerics in the city of Qom.
The launcher is a version of the Shihab 3 missile, which has a range of 1,300-1,600 kilometers. A missile of this type may reach sites in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the magazine's report said. In addition, the improvements in the space launchers may allow Iran to also build intercontinental ballistic missiles with a range of almost 4,000 kilometers.
As we know, Iran is in the crosshairs of Europe and the US due to its insistence on developing a nuclear program, ostensibly for peaceful purposes, but while threatening to destroy Israel and wipe it off the map. In 2005, Iran tried to launch a spy satellite and a scientific satellite as part of a Russian commercial launch, but only the scientific satellite was finally launched after the spy satellite was out of order due to a short circuit. Apparently, after this affair, Iran decided to develop its own launch capabilities to allow it to photograph the State of Israel without interference from space, just as Israel photographs the Middle East region using Ofek satellites.
Tal Inbar, a senior researcher from the Ishr Institute for Strategic Research and chairman of the Israel Space Association, says that Iran has been trying for years to achieve an independent launch capability into space. However, he emphasized, a satellite launcher that will be based on the Shahab 3 ballistic missile will, at best, be able to launch a tiny satellite weighing 20 kg. A satellite of such weight cannot be used for security applications and should be considered a declaration of intent and a launch for propaganda purposes only.
At the same time, Iran is developing solid fuel rocket propulsion capabilities, in order to enable the launch of surface-to-surface missiles at short notice, on the one hand, and to improve the carrying capacity of a future satellite launcher.
The Iranian spy satellite went out of use - gathering information from the launch that was supposed to be shared by the spy satellite and a scientific satellite. Only the scientific satellite Sina-1 was launched (October 2005)
