Nour-3 (satellite)

2023: Satellite Launch

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a unit of the Iranian military, launched the Noor 3 satellite into space on a Qasem rocket. This was reported on September 27, 2023 by Iranian state media.

Iranian media reports were confirmed by the US Space Force, which recorded two objects (presumably a satellite and one of the rocket parts) at an altitude of about 450 kilometers.

IRGC launched a satellite Noor 3 into space on a Qasem rocket

Noor 3 is an Earth remote sensing satellite. The satellite's predecessors, Noor 2 and Noor 1, were launched in March 2022 and April 2020, respectively. Noor 1 fell back to Earth in 2022, and Noor 2 continues to operate in orbit and can work in conjunction with a new satellite, as Noor 3 was launched to the flowing height of Noor 2.

Earlier, the representative of the Iranian government, Ali Bahadori Jahromi, said that in eight years Iran intends to become a regional center in the field of launching spacecraft and providing other space services. According to him, "the main platform for international launches will be the Chabahar space base, which is currently being built under the control of the Iranian Space Organization." Jahromi also said that the government is considering programs in the design and construction of various types of telecommunications, measurement and radar satellites based on the country's internal capabilities.

The world community (especially the United States and its allies) is actively monitoring Iran's space program, since missiles delivering satellites into orbit can also be potentially used for weapons, especially nuclear warheads. Iran, in turn, says its missiles are used exclusively for peaceful purposes.

At the moment, it is not known that Iran has nuclear weapons, however, according to UN statements, the country has a sufficient amount of enriched uranium for several atomic bombs.^[1]

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