“Successfully” he launched it Iran a new research satellite, as official media reported today, a new stage in the development of the country’s aerospace activities despite Western sanctions.

The satellite Sorayyaowned by the Iranian Space Agency, “was successfully launched today by the Revolutionary Guards’ Ghaem-100 rocket,” state television said.

It was placed into an orbit 750 kilometers above Earth — it is “the first time” Iran has sent a satellite “above 500 kilometers,” according to Iran’s official Irna news agency.

THE Minister of Telecommunications, Isa Zarepour, stated that Sorayya is “a research satellite weighing about 50 kilograms”.

Iran has been developing its aerospace activities for years and maintains that they are peaceful and in line with a UN Security Council resolution.

But Western governments fear that its satellite launch systems incorporate technologies that can be interchanged with those used in ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

The Ghaem-100 missile was developed by the Revolutionary Guards, the Islamic Republic’s ideological army, which announced in September that it had launched the Nour-3 imaging satellite 450 kilometers above Earth.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been subject to tough US sanctions since Washington pulled out in 2018 from an international deal aimed at curtailing Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.