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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.

6 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 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.

    3. 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...

  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 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.