Iran Shows Satellite to Reporters in Rebuttal of US Claim

Iranian Minister of Information and Communications Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi took the reporters on Saturday morning to a space research center, where the domestically-made satellite was showcased undamaged.

Earlier in the day, Jahromi posted a picture of himself along with the telecommunication satellite, saying, “Me & Nahid 1 right now. Good Morning Donald Trump!”

It came one day after Trump posted on Twitter a black-and-white photo of what he claimed to be a “catastrophic accident” at the launchpad in a space center in Iran’s northern Semnan Province, saying it involved Safir (ambassador) satellite-carrier rocket.

“The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran. I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One,” Trump said.

Some media reports said that the picture showed a third failed attempt by Tehran to lift a satellite into space.

Azari Jahromi, however, took to Twitter to reject the reports, saying, “Frankly, Nahid 1 is doing well, is in the laboratory, and reporters can come visit.”

Iran is expected to launch three satellites into orbit by the end of the year despite US warnings against the country’s aerospace program.

The satellites include Nahid 1, which has Iran’s first foldable solar panels, as well as Zafar and Pars 1 sensing satellites.

Iran launched its first locally-built satellite, Omid (Hope), in 2009. The country also sent its first bio-capsule containing living creatures into space in February 2010, using Kavoshgar (Explorer)-3 carrier.

In February 2015, Iran placed its domestically-made Fajr (Dawn) satellite into orbit, which is capable of taking and transmitting high-quality photos to stations on Earth.

In January 2019, the domestically-built Payam (Message) satellite was launched into space with an aim to collect environmental information; however, technical problems that occurred during the final stage of the launch prevented the spacecraft from reaching orbit.