Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Iran Launches Its First Domestic Satellite

Iran has apparently entered an exclusive club among nations, those who have successfully orbited a satellite. For technical details based on observations, head to http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/2174/congratulations-iran. The satellite named Omid (which means "hope") itself is not going to cause any military planners to lose much sleep, save the notion that the sanctions are apparently having no effect.

The Safir (which means "messenger") is another story. The Safir rocket is what was used to put the Omid into orbit. If you can send a payload around the globe, in theory you can put a payload anywhere on earth. The unknown here is carrying capacity of this defacto ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile). (More info at http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/should-we-worry-about-irans-alleged-satellite-space-shot.)

This is a possibility that this is another Iranian hoax, but it does appear to be legitimate.

Now would be a good time to speed up out ballistic missile shield. Unfortunately, the last comments I heard from Obama indicated a desire to detail the whole program. Let us hope he has since had a change of heart.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Like what you read; Subscribe/Fan/Follow