GHAEM -100 SATL : IRAN

Launch of the GHAEM – 100 Satl

1. Iran’s powerful para mil Revolutionary Gd on 05 Nov 22, launched a new

satl - carrying rkt, seeking to demonstrate the force’s space prowess even as anti - govt
protests rage across the country. The Ghaem 100, Iran’s first three-stage launch veh, will
be able to place satl weighing 80 kg (180 pounds) in an orbit 500 km (300 miles) from the
earth’s surface. The flight test of this satl carrier with a solid-fueled engine was successfully
completed.

2. Ongoing Disturbances. The announcement of the launch came during the seventh
week of mass protests that were triggered by the death of a 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini.
She had been arrested by the country's morality police for allegedly not complying with the
country's compulsory headscarf rules for women, later dying in police custody. Her death
prompted tens of thousands of people to protest against the repressive policies of Iran's govt.
The protests embroiling the country first focused on the state - mandated headscarf, or hijab,
but swiftly morphed into one of the biggest challenges to the govt since the 1979 Islamic
Revolution. Protesters chant for overthrowing the clerical rule and the death of the supreme
ldr.

3. Security forces, including paramil volunteers with the Revolutionary Guard, have
violently cracked down on the demonstrations, killing over 300 people, according to rights
groups. Student unions in Iran reported protests in at least six major universities across the
country. Universities have been hubs for unrest, fueling the protest movement despite the
crackdown.

Iran’s Space Pgme

4. Iran successfully launched its first mil satl in Apr 2020, drawing a sharp rebuke from
Washington. Over the past decade, Iran has sent several short - lived satl into orbit and in
2013 launched a monkey into space. The pgme has seen recent troubles, however. There
have been five failed launches in a row for the Simorgh pgme, another
satl- carrying rkt.

5. A fire at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Feb 2019 killed three researchers. A rkt
exploded on a launchpad later that year.

6. Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Guard’s Aerospace Div, which devp
the Ghaem-100, said the rkt would be used to launch Iran’s Nahid satl for the Telecom
Ministry. Iran has one of the biggest msl pgme in the Middle East. The country says its satl
pgme, like its nuc activities, is aimed at scientific research and other civ applications. The
Iranian Space Agency has said the satl will be used for agriculture and water resources
planning, and the Russian embassy in Tehran said the spacecraft was devised for non-mil
purposes.

8. In Aug, the Khayyam satl, built and launched by Russia on behalf of Iran, lofted into
orbit from the Russia- controlled Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
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Western Reactions

9. Western experts have no doubts that the satl is intended for spying. The satl’s imaging
capabilities are expected to present a significant challenge to Israel, which has itself used
such technology for a long time.

10. The United States and other Western countries have long been suspicious of the
pgme because the same technology can be used to devp long- rg msls. Previous launches
have drawn rebukes from the US. The US govt fears that the same long- rg ballistic
technology that launches satl into orbit could also be used to launch nuc warheads.

11. A UN resolution in 2015 called on Iran to refrain for up to eight years from work on
ballistic msls designed to deliver nuc wpns fwg an agreement with six world powers. The US
remains concerned with Iran’s continued devp of space launch vehicles (SLVs), which pose a
significant proliferation concern. SLVs incorporate technologies that are virtually identical to,
and interchangeable with, those used in ballistic msls, including longer-rg sys.

12. The US official stated that launches of SLVs defy United Nations Security Council
Resolution (UNSCR) 2231, which calls upon Iran not to undertake any activities related to
ballistic msls, designed to be capable of delivering nuc wpns, incl launches using such
ballistic msl technology.

13. Washington continues to use  a variety of non- proliferation tools, incl sanctions, to
counter the further adv of Iran’s ballistic msl pgme  and  its ability to proliferate  msls and
related technology to others. Then- President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the nuc
deal in 2018. President Joe Biden's adm had been seeking to negotiate Iran's return to the
pact but recently said it had set aside diplomacy for now because it said Tehran had supplied
drones to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine.

Iran’s Stance

14. Iran says it has never pursued the devp of nuc weapons and, therefore, the resolution
does not apply to its ballistic msls, which Tehran had described as an imp deterrent and
retaliatory force.

15. Iran ack for the first time on 05 Nov 2022 that it had supplied Moscow with drones but
said they were sent before the war in Ukraine, where Russia has used them to target power
stations and civ infra. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Tehran of lying,
saying Kyiv's forces were downing at least 10 of the UAVs every day.

Source:-
1. The Times of Israel.
2. Reuters.
3. DW Media, Germany.