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UN Watchdog Chief Says 'Very Significant Damage' Expected at Iran's Fordo Site after US Attack

Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has taken seat for the IAEA's Board of Governors meeting at the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, on June 16, 2025. (AFP)
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has taken seat for the IAEA's Board of Governors meeting at the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, on June 16, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Watchdog Chief Says 'Very Significant Damage' Expected at Iran's Fordo Site after US Attack

Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has taken seat for the IAEA's Board of Governors meeting at the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, on June 16, 2025. (AFP)
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has taken seat for the IAEA's Board of Governors meeting at the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, on June 16, 2025. (AFP)

The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Monday that “very heavy damage” is expected at Iran’s underground facility at Fordo after a US airstrike there this weekend with sophisticated bunker-buster bombs.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, made the statement in Vienna, said The Associated Press.

“Given the explosive payload utilized and the extreme vibration sensitive nature of centrifuges, very significant damage is expected to have occurred,” Gross said.

He added that “at this time, no one, including the IAEA, is in a position to have fully assessed the underground damage at Fordo.”

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Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
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Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP

Israel on Sunday said it had launched a new national communications satellite on board a SpaceX rocket from the United States.

The Dror 1 satellite was blasted into orbit on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the foreign ministry said.

"This $200 million 'smartphone in space' will power Israel's strategic and civilian communications for 15 years," the ministry wrote on X.

Accompanying video footage showed the reusable, two-stage rocket lift off into the night sky. SpaceX said the launch happened at 1:04 am in Florida (0504 GMT Sunday).

IAI, which called the launch "a historic leap for Israeli space technology", said when it announced the project to develop and build Dror 1 that it was "the most advanced communication satellite ever built in Israel".

In September 2016, an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test in Florida, destroying Israel's Amos-6 communications satellite, which was estimated to have cost between $200 and 300 million.