MOSCOW. (Andrei Kislyakov, for RIA Novosti) - The international community, busy discussing the upcoming launch of a North Korean booster with a satellite, or possibly a warhead, did not notice Iran's announcement that its satellite had successfully completed its scientific mission after more than a month in orbit.
Iran put its first communications satellite, Omid (Hope), into a near-Earth orbit on February 2. The satellite was carried into orbit by an Iranian launch vehicle, Safir (Messenger).
Iran has the missile potential, based on the best achievements of the Soviet Union, China and North Korea, for becoming a fully-fledged space power soon, and also for manufacturing strategic missiles.
After the successful launch on February 2, Reza Taghipour, head of Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization, mentioned their ambition to launch an astronaut into space before 2021. Iran's minister of communications said Tehran was working on seven types of satellites, including three high-orbit ones. It plans to orbit five satellites by 2010.
Iran has advanced a great deal in the field of missile and rocket technology. The Omid satellite orbited by the Safir booster will soon be followed by the Kaveshgyar (Explorer) rockets. The Western intelligence community has warned that Iran's successes in peaceful space exploration point to its expanded possibilities in the field of ballistic missiles.
Iran's missile industry is based on the Soviet RS-14 Scud and its modernized North Korean and Chinese versions. Iran used more than 300 Scud missiles it had bought from North Korea to create the Shahab-1 and -2 missiles in the 1990s, and launched their production at home by 1997. It is rumored that Iran is also manufacturing its Shahab-2 missiles in Syria.
Next it produced the Shahab-3 missile on the basis of North Korea's No Dong-1/A and No Dong-1/B missiles, which had possibly been created and modernized with Iran's financial assistance. The first successful launch of the Shahab-3 missile with a North Korean engine was made in July 2000. On September 22, 2003, Shahab-3 missiles mounted on mobile launchers took part in a military parade in Tehran.
Western analysts assume that the missile has a range of some 2,000 km (1,243 miles) and a payload of 700 kilograms, which qualifies it as a medium-range missile. In other words, it is a strategic missile. By early 2008, Iran presumably increased its payload to 1.3 tons without affecting its range.
Iran is currently working on solid-fuel ballistic missiles, Shahab-5 and Shahab-6, with a range of 3,000 (1,865 miles) and 5,000 km (3,108 miles), respectively. This means that Tehran is on the verge of creating intercontinental strategic missiles.
It is also developing the ground infrastructure for its missiles. Iran already has seven missile centers at Isfahan, Semnan, Shiraz, Sultanabad, Lavizan, Kuh-e Barjamali and Shahrud, as well as a host of smaller enterprises.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
