Iran launches 3 satellites into space that are part of a Western-criticized program as tensions rise

Iran reported on Sunday that it had launched three satellites into orbit, the most recent as part of a programme aimed at enhancing Tehran’s ballistic missile defences, according to the West.

Iran’s Simorgh rocket, which has seen several failures in the past, was also successfully used in this launch, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

The launch occurs at a time when Israel’s ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip is causing increased tensions throughout the Middle East.

Although Iran has refrained from intervening militarily in the fight, it has been under growing pressure from inside its theocracy to take action following a fatal suicide bombing by the Islamic State earlier this month and as proxy organisations such as the Houthi rebels in Yemen carry out war-related assaults.

Footage released by Iranian state television showed a nighttime launch for the Simorgh rocket. An Associated Press analysis of the footage’s details showed that it took place at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran’s rural Semnan province.

State TV named the launched satellites Mahda, Kayhan-2 and Hatef-1. It described the Mahda as a research satellite, while the Kayhan and the Hatef were nanosatellites focused on global positioning and communication respectively.

There have been five failed launches in a row for the Simorgh program, another satellite-carrying rocket. The Simorgh, or “Phoenix,” rocket failures have been part of a series of setbacks in recent years for Iran’s civilian space program, including fatal fires and a launchpad rocket explosion that drew the attention of former US President Donald Trump.

The United States has previously said Iran’s satellite launches defy a U.N. Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. U.N. sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired last October.

The US intelligence community’s 2023 worldwide threat assessment said the development of satellite launch vehicles “shortens the timeline” for Iran to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile because it uses similar technology.

The US military and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. However, the US military has quietly acknowledged a successful Iranian satellite launch from Jan. 20 conducted by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.