spacetoday.net: Reports: Iran launches satellite

Posted: Tue, Feb 3, 2009, 8:56 AM ET (1356 GMT)
An Iranian rocket placed a small satellite into Earth orbit on Monday night, marking the first successful orbital launch by the Middle Eastern nation. According to domestic media reports, a Safir-2 rocket lifted off and placed the Omid spacecraft, said to be a small communications and technology demonstration satellite, into low Earth orbit. The exact time and location of the launch were not disclosed, but both the spacecraft and its spent upper stage are being tracked in elliptical orbits. Iran claimed to have launched a satellite in August, but no spacecraft reached orbit and the launch was dismissed as a failure and perhaps only a ballistic missile test. Iranian officials said last month that they planned to launch a satellite by March 20; Monday night's launch was timed to coincide with the beginning of celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution.