Iran Launches Satellite Into Orbit - Questions Remain

For the first time in the nations history, Iran has launched a satellite into orbit - bringing up concerns around the nation's nuclear program and regional ambitions. The satellite named Omid, meaning "Hope", was launched into orbit using a Safir-2 rocket.

On 17 August 2008, Iranian officials reported that a Safir rocket was launched successfully without a payload, in preparation for the Omid satellite launch. During that test, "The Safir (Ambassador) satellite carrier was had successfully launched a dummy satellite into orbit".

Now today, Iran has their first real satellite orbiting the Earth. "Dear people of Iran, your children have sent Iran's first domestic satellite into orbit," Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. "May this be a step toward.. justice and peace. Iran's official presence in space has been added to the pages of history."

"Iran's satellite technology is for purely peaceful purposes and to meet the needs of the country," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference in Addis Ababa. "Satellites are a very essential means of gathering environmental data, climate data ... and lots of necessary information that we need for technological, agricultural and economic projects," Mottaki went on to say.

Not a whole lot of information is known about the Omid Satellite other than what the nation has already stated. They have described it as a "data-processing" satellite for research and telecommunications purposes.

Omid is Iran's second satellite in orbit. A previous Iranian satellite, Sinah-1, was built and launched for Iran by Russia in 2005.