Iran launches observation satellite

[Camera]

Islamic Republic sends 'Navid' into orbit. Satellite said to be equipped with advanced surveillance, imaging systems

Dudi Cohen

Iran launched an observation satellite into orbit, its Arabic satellite television channel Al-Alam reported Friday.

A report by the official Iranian news agency IRNA confirmed the launch: "The Navid satellite was launched successfully... It will be placed into orbit (at an altitude) between 250 and 370 kilometers," the head of Iran's Space Organization, Hamid Fazeli, said.

Continued:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...184779,00.html

Other reports say the weight of the satellite is 50 Kg.

[Ambassador]

I wonder who outside Israel and the west really considers that these Iranian space satellite launches are intended to progress its missile program. Iran actually seems genuinely interested to obtain indigenous satellite launch capability for the next generation with this Safir tech than anything else.

I want to read more about Iran's satellite and space launch capabilities in and of themselves rather than about their alleged connections to a completely hypothetical long-range nuke program or some such. The former has a lot more scientific and academic value as something that deserves to be read, providing very insightful glimpse into how late space powers cope with relatively less advanced technology and weak foreign cooperation and compensate those disadvantages with creativity and resourcefulness. It can tell the almost inspiring childhood biography of a late space power as it struggles to enter the space race with almost entirely indigenous effort for future space powers. Iran has set down a very good empirical example for other developing countries who seek to build their own space industry to follow for success. Unfortunately the western sources' information on Safir is very few that does not raise the typical 'this is for ballistic missile' flag, missing the immense scientific value, meaning, and implication of the information that someone can actually send functional satellites into space and to proper orbit with improvised Scud technology.

[Camera]

You won't find such reports even in the Iranian English sites, because these launches have no scientific value.

[Ambassador]

because these launches have no scientific value.

Rofl. how very typical of you to say that.

[Divinity]

You won't find such reports even in the Iranian English sites, because these launches have no scientific value.

It depends for who.
they certainly have valuable scientific value for the people who do them
by the way I doubt there will be any new scientific discovery in any
launching device no matter which country build that . this technology
date back to 500 years ago.and making the missile bigger won't add any
new scientific data .

the sat and mastering the launch technology itself is the value for the country
that do the launch

[Camera]

It depends for who.
they certainly have valuable scientific value for the people who do them
by the way I doubt there will be any new scientific discovery in any
launching device no matter which country build that . this technology
date back to 500 years ago.and making the missile bigger won't add any
new scientific data .

the sat and mastering the launch technology itself is the value for the country
that do the launch

Value for the country, yes. For science as Ambassador pretends, no. We are not in the Spoutnik era anymore.

[Armed with RPG]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

iran has conquered the space !

Ammerica still tryin' but didn't succeed to conquer even....afghanistan...

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[Ambassador]

Value for the country, yes. For science as Ambassador pretends, no. We are not in the Spoutnik era anymore.

Iran's space launch experiences provide very insightful glimpse into how late space powers cope with relatively less advanced technology and weak foreign cooperation and compensate those disadvantages with creativity and resourcefulness. It can tell the almost inspiring childhood biography of a late space power as it struggles to enter the space race with almost entirely indigenous effort for future space powers. Iran has set down a very good empirical example for other developing countries who seek to build their own space industry to follow for success. Unfortunately the western sources' information on Safir is very few that does not raise the typical 'this is for ballistic missile' flag, missing the immense scientific value, meaning, and implication of the information that someone can actually send functional satellites into space and to proper orbit with improvised Scud technology, particularly from space launch market analysis perspective.

[Camera]

There's no scientific value in these launches based on upgrade of ballistic technologies of the 1950s.

[Divinity]

Well ,what I'm interested in is that Iran claims this missile have 20% more
trusting power than the previous but it seems it has the same dimensions
as the previous launcher .that would be interesting to know what optimization
is done on the missile to achieve this 20% more power

[xav]

I thought (read it here on mp.net in the Turkish satellite/Israeli embargo + pressure on French firms etc...) very few countries in the world master the technology behind "space bound" optics...

So one has to wonder what kind of optic they used in this "observation sattelite"... Off the shelf (civil spec) Carl Zeiss ?

[Camera]

I thought (read it here on mp.net in the Turkish satellite/Israeli embargo + pressure on French firms etc...) very few countries in the world master the technology behind "space bound" optics...

So one has to wonder what kind of optic they used in this "observation sattelite"... Off the shelf (civil spec) Carl Zeiss ?

I don't know the answer, but the previous Iranian satellite had a resolution in the range of tens of meters. That rendered it unworthy to any military application.

[Divinity]

well this satellite is also have no military use just looking at the
50kg of it's weight show this clearly by the way I guess Iran have
Isfahan Optic Industry which produce all of it's military optics.

It seems this sat is also a satellite that observe weather and
disasters and such things.

[StateMachine]

There's no scientific value in these launches based on upgrade of ballistic technologies of the 1950s.

If Israel would quit blowing their sites up, then Iran would be able to launch scientifically significant satellites much quicker. It is quite strange for someone to criticize the lack of any scientific value of program that his and other countries are working tirelessly to sabotage.

[Ambassador]

There's no scientific value in these launches based on upgrade of ballistic technologies of the 1950s.

Jeez. You just have no idea how much reverberating impact there will be to the world SLV and satellite launch service market once Iran successfully clusters these Safir SLVs together and manages to launch satellites weighing several hundreds of kg to high earth orbit, and of the important value of Iran's space launch program as a case study to impartial observers who do not have to worry about its separate connection to a ballistic missile program. But I understand that the SLV market analysis is most likely not your area of interest, and coupled with the sole fact that it's from this country named 'Iran', it can very well mean it has no value to you anyway.

But some of the more pragmatic analysts already picked up quickly on the significant of Iran's developing space technology. Most of the western media will still not attempt to bring out significant scientific information on this groundbreaking development though, most of them caught up in the heat of the nuke ICBM obsession. I'll just have to pick out the good ones.

Futron’s 2010 SCI expands its analysis of each country, providing added data, where applicable, on
national space assets, infrastructure, budget, and commercial sector revenues. This enhanced focus on
the 10 leaders is balanced by a discussion of five emerging space actors spanning diverse regions of
the world: Australia, Iran, Singapore, South Africa, and Ukraine.

As Japan continues to implement its comprehensive Basic Space Law reforms, will it convert
administrative momentum into more ****ounced regional space leadership?

Is China on track to achieve the ambitious space goals it has set for 2010 and 2011?

Will Indian investments in new launch and satellite platforms result in significant
technological advances?

Will South Korea rebound from its failed launch attempt to conduct its first successful orbital
mission, reshaping the Asian space dynamic?

Will Canada’s military space policy refresh lead to closer alignment with the United States
and Europe, or instead increase investment in independent capabilities?

Will Israel develop the political consensus to make larger space investments in order to
convert its niche strengths into an expanded international presence?

Will Brazil translate its current review of space plans into concerted national action?

Will emerging space participants such as Australia, Ukraine, and others surge to displace any
of the current leading nations?

As Iran builds on the success of its first orbital launch, will it disrupt the current space
landscape, or be open to international collaboration and partnership?

What are the economic consequences of a commercial space environment developed by
multiple international providers of key technologies, systems, and services?

To provide practical insight into these strategic questions, Futron Corporation is pleased to
provide this 2010 update of its Space Competitiveness Index. Some top-level findings of our SCI
are provided below.

And this was only the 2010 report... Let's see what new scientific insights they'll turn up in 2012 and beyond for the highly intriguing space industry of Iran which may very well have a lot of influence on transforming the future of the world's space landscape.