Tehran, Dec 30 (EFE) .- Iran announced the “successful” launch this Thursday of a rocket into space that carried three “research devices”, amid the Vienna talks to rescue the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Defense Ministry spokesman Ahmad Hosseini reported the launch of the Simorgh (Phoenix) rocket and its charge at an altitude of 470 kilometers and at a speed of 7,350 meters per second.
“The research objectives of this launch have been achieved,” Hosseini was quoted as saying on state television.
The source indicated that this launch was a “test” and that “soon” an “operational” one will be carried out, without offering more details.
Hosseini, however, did not report whether the “research machines” were put into orbit.
The rocket launch comes amid talks in Vienna to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and Germany, France, the United Kingdom, China, Russia and the United States indirectly.
The nuclear deal limited the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions, but Washington abandoned it in 2018 and imposed new punitive measures against Iran.
A year after former President Donald Trump dynamited the agreement, Tehran began to breach the limits imposed on its atomic program and accumulate more uranium than it was allowed and above the maximum purity of 3.67%.
The Vienna contacts have a double objective: that the US returns to the pact and that Iran fully comply with it again.
Iran put its first satellite into orbit in 2009. In 2017, it inaugurated the Khomeini Imam National Space Center and launched a space rocket carrying the Simorgh satellite.
In April 2020, it managed to put its first military satellite into orbit, after several failures.
The United States has repeatedly expressed concern over the launch of Iranian rockets as it suspects they have military objectives and may use that technology to develop ballistic missiles.
