Iran develops satellite launch capability

In August, Iran moved closer to acheiving it's own satellite launch capability.

To date only a limited number of countries have had the capability of launching satellites into Earth orbit. The high demand for satellite launches and shortage of launchers has resulted in high prices being charged even for non-commercial educational satellites.

However, launch technology is being developed by a growing number of countries for various reasons. On August 17th Iran tested its Safir-e-Omid-1 launcher and a video of the launch can be seen on the BBC website at the URL below.

According to reports Iran plans to put a satellite Omid into Earth orbit in the coming months.

As the number of players in the satellite launch business steadily increases then we can expect to see an eventual reduction in the cost of getting a satellite into space.

BBC - Iranians inaugurate space project (February 2008)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7225699.stm

BBC - Iran launches satellite carrier (August 2008) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7566804.stm