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State Television Says Iran Launches New Satellite Into Space

Posted by samzenpus on from the putting-it-out-there dept.

An anonymous reader writes State television in Iran is reporting the Islamic Republic has launched a new satellite into space, its fourth in recent years to orbit the Earth. The report Monday quoted Defense Minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan saying the satellite, designed and built in Iran, is named "Fajr," or dawn in Farsi. The report did not elaborate.

12 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. I love the snark here by NotDrWho · · Score: 3, Funny

    I wonder if the Sputnik launch was accompanied by snarky headline "Soviet News Agency Claims to Have Launched Satellite (that's what they CLAIM, wink, wink)"

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    1. Re: I love the snark here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Nope. Sputnik produced a signal, a repetitive beep, that could be picked up by amateur radio operators. Not only could US citizens verify Sputnik for themselves, but cold war paranoia ascribed various sinister purposes to the beep. It was to signal sleeper agents or mind control people or something. In reality, it was just a beep. The soviets had a proper satellite (Sputnik 3) that they wanted to send up but it wasn't ready in time

    2. Re:I love the snark here by Nutria · · Score: 2

      Iran has faked missile launches before...

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    3. Re: I love the snark here by crunchy_one · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The signal emitted by Sputnik allowed mapping of the Earth's gravitational field. Something that needed doing for subsequent flights.

    4. Re: I love the snark here by RightwingNutjob · · Score: 3, Informative

      In fact, the US Navy's Transit satellite navigation system was conceived when JHU engineers used a computer to determine the exact orbit of the satellite from the doppler shift of the beep received on the ground and realized that if the orbit of the satellite were known a priori, the computation was equivalent to locating yourself (ie a ship) on the surface of the Earth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

    5. Re:I love the snark here by Motard · · Score: 2

      Yeah, I refuse to believe this until I see a photoshop image proving it.

    6. Re:I love the snark here by qpqp · · Score: 2

      that brings back the risks of instability.

      At the same time they propose to route Azerbaijani gas through their country in an offer to diversify the EUs energy sources (and also buying themselves an insurance policy against military strikes), while high-profile western politicians suck up to the new Saudi King lauding reforms in the country with an unparalleled hypocrisy (e.g. in relation to human rights issues, etc.) just because it suits them.
      Fuck politics and fear mongering war hawks.

      Let Iran do whatever they want, they're a sovereign nation and should be able to do whatever they want as long as they're defending themselves, as opposed to the EUSA banking cartel(s), which should be restrained over their (its?) constant interference and meddling in the internal affairs of other countries.

      Ah, feels good to vent...

  2. Re:No elaboration? Is it a cubesat? by halivar · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's an X10 camera on a USB stick for some advanced Iranian space photography.

  3. Re:No elaboration? Is it a cubesat? by popo · · Score: 2

    You absolutely could.

    But keep in mind that the principal expense is actually the "launch" part, not the satellite part. It's difficult to translate prices from what an orbital launch costs to achieve in the US vs. what it would cost for the government to achieve an orbital launch in Iran -- but using CubeSats as a metric, consider that the development cost of a CubeSat can be as low as $10k USD, with the remaining cost going to placing the satellite in orbit.

    --
    ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
  4. Re:No elaboration? Is it a cubesat? by Cytotoxic · · Score: 2

    The launch of cubesats is a government subsidized program. They use leftover lift capacity on NASA and USAF launches to carry the cubesats into orbit. The cost is not at all reflective of the true cost of launching a satellite.

  5. Re:No elaboration? Is it a cubesat? by JerryLove · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There's nothing particularly impressive anymore about launching a satellite into space.

    I could be wrong: but I'm pretty sure that the ability to place anything into orbit shows considerable technical and engineering skill.

    The ability to put even a small payload into orbit implies the ability to put a larger payload on an intercontinental suborbital arc... at least based on my time in Kerbal Space Program.

  6. Re:No elaboration? Is it a cubesat? by jcfandino · · Score: 2
    Here: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2015/02/iran-launches-observation-satellite-2012-150202134514005.html
    Some quotes:

    The Fajr (Dawn) satellite was successfully placed 450km above Earth on Monday

    The satellite was locally made, said the official IRNA news agency, as was its launcher

    Fajr satellite, weighing 52kg would be able to take accurate pictures from space.

    the 21-metre and 26 tonne launcher, named Safir-Fajr, shows "the ability of Iran to build satellite launchers".