On Thursday, Iran finally made a public launch of its Simorgh satellite launch vehicle.
Simorgh was not carrying a payload, which indicates that this launch likely a quick response to recent US sanctions. On the other hand, this could have been a pre-planned test that has either coincidentally fallen at a politically favourable time, or one which has been fast tracked. Nevertheless, Iran chose to publicise the test very vividly, unlike a previous test conducted last year that was only noticed because of blurry footage taken of a projected video at some sort of conference.
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| Simorgh was launched from the new Imam Khomeini Launch Centre (IKLC) |
Simorgh was not carrying a payload, which indicates that this launch likely a quick response to recent US sanctions. On the other hand, this could have been a pre-planned test that has either coincidentally fallen at a politically favourable time, or one which has been fast tracked. Nevertheless, Iran chose to publicise the test very vividly, unlike a previous test conducted last year that was only noticed because of blurry footage taken of a projected video at some sort of conference.
One notable part of the test was the orange liquid pumping out of the side of the rocket in the first few seconds of launch. This is a pressure valve to regulate fuel tank pressure. It also confirms that Simorgh is using UDMH/N2O4 fuel, which is more energetic than the Kerosene used by other emerging space programs like North Korea's.
Footage of the launch correlates with this different fuel, as the rocket displays good acceleration considering it is an 85 ton SLV. The successful testing of Simorgh can mean a brighter future for the Iranian space program, as Simorgh is able to send 250 kg satellites to 500 km orbits. This is without upgrades that can be made, like extended stages, SRBs, better fuel, improved engines or even added stages.
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