Iran – Spaceflight Now

U.S. companies, led by SpaceX, launched more than any other country in 2020

January 5, 2021 Stephen Clark

Leading all other nations, U.S. launch providers flew 44 missions in 2020 that aimed to place payloads in Earth orbit or deep space, with 40 successes. China followed with 35 successful orbital missions in 39 launch attempts.

Iran places military satellite in orbit

April 22, 2020 Stephen Clark

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps — a branch of the country’s armed forces — launched a small military spacecraft into orbit Wednesday, ending a string of rocket failures in the nascent Iranian satellite program.

Iran fails in satellite launch attempt

February 10, 2020 Stephen Clark

Iranian government officials admitted Sunday that an attempt to place a small Earth-imaging satellite into orbit was unsuccessful, the fourth consecutive launch failure for the country’s space program.

Long March, Soyuz and Falcon rockets topped 2019’s launch leaderboard

January 2, 2020 Stephen Clark

China led the world with 34 orbital launch attempts in 2019 — including two failures — followed by 22 flights from Russian-operated launch pads and 21 satellite delivery missions originating from U.S. spaceports, all of which were successful.

Surveillance photos reveal apparent explosion on Iranian launch pad

August 30, 2019 Stephen Clark

A day after commercial satellite images revealed a smoke plume over an Iranian launch pad, President Trump tweeted a remarkably high-resolution aerial photograph of the remote satellite launch facility Friday — apparently from a classified satellite or airborne drone — and denied U.S. involvement in the accident.

Second Iranian satellite launch attempt in a month fails

February 11, 2019 Stephen Clark

Iran’s second try in less than a month to send a satellite into orbit apparently failed shortly after liftoff from a remote desert launch pad under daily surveillance from a fleet of commercial imaging spacecraft, according to U.S. government officials and independent analysts.

Iran admits failure in satellite launch attempt

January 16, 2019 Stephen Clark

An Iranian Simorgh rocket launch carrying an Earth observation spacecraft faltered before reaching orbit Tuesday after analysts used imagery from commercial U.S. satellites in recent weeks to track preparations for the mission.

Florida spaceport tallies highest launch rate in more than a decade

January 4, 2016 Stephen Clark

Cape Canaveral was the departure point for more space launches in 2015 than in any year since 2003, with 17 takeoffs by Atlas, Falcon and Delta rockets hoisting U.S. military satellites, commercial payloads and cargo for the International Space Station.

Iranian satellite successfully placed in orbit

February 2, 2015 Stephen Clark

Iranian engineers are in contact with an experimental satellite after it blasted off Monday aboard a two-stage Safir booster, marking Iran’s first successful orbital launch in three years, state media reported.