Iran’s reported satellite launch comes amid rising tensions in the Middle East.
Iran launched a satellite into space Saturday with a rocket built by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, state-run media reported, the latest for a program the West fears helps Tehran advance its .
Iran described the launch as a success, which would be the second such launch to put a with the rocket. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the launch’s success.
Footage later released by Iranian media showed the rocket blast off from a mobile launcher. An Associated Press analysis of the video and other imagery later released suggested the launch happened at the Guard’s launch pad on the outskirts of the city of Shahroud, some 215 miles east of the capital, Tehran.
The launch comes amid heightened tensions gripping the wider Middle East over the in the Gaza Strip, during which Tehran launched an unprecedented direct . Meanwhile, Iran continues to enrich uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels, raising concerns among nonproliferation experts about Tehran’s program.
Iran identified the satellite-carrying rocket as the Qaem-100, which the Guard used in January for another successful launch. Qaem means “upright” in Iran’s Farsi language.
The solid-fuel, three-stage rocket put the Chamran-1 satellite, weighing 132 pounds, into a 340-mile orbit, state media reported.
