Iranian state media reported on Wednesday that the Middle Eastern country successfully launched a second military satellite into space, with Noor 2 orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 500 kilometers.
The Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Tuesday that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard deployed the satellite from a mobile launcher in the Shahroud Desert, but did not specify exactly when the launch took place.
According to the Revolutionary Guard, the Noor 2 satellite reached low orbit on a Ghased satellite carrier, with is described as a three-phase mixed fuel device. The announcement of the successful launch comes days after AP reported that satellite images from Maxar Technologies showed that Iran had likely suffered another failed satellite launch.
The images, published by AP, show what appears to be scorch marks on a launch pad in Iran’s Semnan province, with a damaged rocket stand and vehicles surrounding the site visible. Separate satellite images released from Planet Labs PBC suggest that the failed launch occurred sometime after Friday.
Iran did not comment on the claims, and the US military’s Space Command did not detect a launch over the weekend.
Iran launched its first satellite into space in April 2020, using the same mobile launcher approach to send a Noor satellite into low orbit. At the time, Iran released footage on state TV of the satellite launch, which they claim orbited the Earth within 90 minutes and sent signals back to officials on the ground.