Iran launches new satellite into orbit

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran successfully launched a new small satellite into orbit early Friday, Feb 3.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called in to the launch site, saying he was "hopeful this act will send a signal of more friendship among all human beings," The Associated Press reported citing state-run IRNA news agency.

IRNA said the home-made satellite, Navid, or Gospel, was designed to collect data on weather conditions and monitor for natural disasters.

It said the satellite weighs about 110 pounds (50 kilograms) and would orbit the earth at an altitude of up to 234 miles (375 kilometers), circling the planet 15 times a day. It's of a type known as miniaturized or microsatellites, which are cheaper to produce and allow for less costly launch vehicles.

Navid, produced at an Iranian engineering university, is the third small satellite that Iran launched over the past years. The earlier ones - Omid, launched in 2009, and Rasad, sent into orbit in June 2011 — lasted more than a month each. IRNA said Navid has advanced control technology, a higher resolution camera and photocells to generate power.

Iran's decade-old space program has raised alarms in the West, because the same technology that allows missiles to launch satellites can be used to fire warheads.

Israel, the U.S. and others charge that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting its nuclear enrichment program is geared only for peaceful purposes, such as energy production.