IRGC Prepares to Launch New Satellite Carrier

 A handout picture provided by the Iran's Ministry of Defense on June 26, 2022, shows an Iranian satellite-carrier rocket, called “Zuljanah,” blasting off from an undisclosed location in Iran. (Iran's Ministry of Defense/AFP)
A handout picture provided by the Iran's Ministry of Defense on June 26, 2022, shows an Iranian satellite-carrier rocket, called “Zuljanah,” blasting off from an undisclosed location in Iran. (Iran's Ministry of Defense/AFP)
TT
20

IRGC Prepares to Launch New Satellite Carrier

 A handout picture provided by the Iran's Ministry of Defense on June 26, 2022, shows an Iranian satellite-carrier rocket, called “Zuljanah,” blasting off from an undisclosed location in Iran. (Iran's Ministry of Defense/AFP)
A handout picture provided by the Iran's Ministry of Defense on June 26, 2022, shows an Iranian satellite-carrier rocket, called “Zuljanah,” blasting off from an undisclosed location in Iran. (Iran's Ministry of Defense/AFP)

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh unveiled Monday plans to send a new homegrown satellite carrier into space.

Hajizadeh told Iran’s official news agency IRNA that Iran will put new satellites into orbit with its Qaem satellite carrier, which runs on solid fuel.

The Iranian state television indicated that Qaem rocket was first displayed before 2010, in the presence of Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, the “architect” of the country’s missile program.

Moghaddam was killed on November 12, 2011 in a massive explosion at a munitions base outside the capital Tehran. The blast killed 36 IRGC elements, according to figures presented by Iranian authorities.

The television also showed a picture of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei with Moghaddam, saying that Khamenei was on an inspection tour to be briefed on Qaem rocket’s project.

In January, the IRGC revealed testing solid-fuel rocket engines, the television noted.

Hajizadeh said then that the new missiles “are made of composite materials, rather than metal, and their engine is immobile.”

He explained that this “increases the missile’s power and that the technology is not expensive,” which enables it to transport heavy loads such as satellites.

Iran has previously launched liquid-fueled rockets into space.

On June 26, Iranian state television said that Tehran had launched a solid-fuel rocket into space.

Ahmad Hosseini, spokesman for Iran's Defense Ministry, said Zuljanah, a 25.5 meter-long rocket is capable of carrying a satellite of 220 kilograms (485 pounds) that would gather data in low-earth orbit and promote Iran's space industry.

Its launching process extends to three phases, two phases using solid fuel and one using liquid fuel.

Satellite images taken in March by Maxar Technologies showed scorch marks at a launch pad at Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran’s rural Semnan province. A rocket stand on the pad appears scorched and damaged, with vehicles surrounding it.

The rocket involved appears to have been Iran’s Zuljanah satellite launch vehicle, said experts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who first noticed the attempted launch with colleagues.

Earlier in March, the IRGC's Aerospace Force successfully launched the Noor-2 reconnaissance satellite at an altitude of 500 km, using the Qased carrier.

Noor-2 is Iran's second military satellite sent into Low Earth orbit following its predecessor Noor-1, which was carried by the Qased rocket in April 2020 to an orbit of 425 km above the earth's surface.



Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Spying for the Mossad

People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
TT
20

Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Spying for the Mossad

People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran executed Wednesday a man it said worked for Israel's foreign intelligence agency and played a role in the 2022 killing of a Revolutionary Guard colonel in Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The report identified the man as Mohsen Langarneshin and said he was hanged. It called him a “senior spy” for the Mossad, who provided “technical support” in the assassination of Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, shot five times by gunmen on a motorbike outside his home in Tehran, The Associated Press reported.
The agency said the Mossad recruited Langarneshin in 2020 and that he met with Israeli intelligence officers in Georgia and Nepal.
Langarneshin reportedly rented safe houses for operatives in several Iranian cities, including Isfahan, when, in January 2023, bomb-carrying drones targeted what Iran described as a military workshop. Iran has accused Israel of being behind the attack.
The report said Langarneshin confessed in Iran's Revolutionary court, which usually provides a court-appointed lawyer and doesn't allow media access.
At the time of his assassination, local media identified Khodaei only as a “defender of the shrine,” a reference to Iranians who fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq within the Guard’s Quds force that oversees foreign operations.