Iranian Space Program Falls to Earth
The Omid satellite will crash in the next few days after only a few weeks in orbit.
Iran made a lot of fuss about its so-called “homegrown” Omid (Hope) satellite, launched during the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. Now it looks like it’s going to crash back to earth.
A few days ago, Iran’s space officials stated in a surprise announcement that the satellite will be ending its “successful” mission around March 25. What they meant to say is that their satellite has gone rogue and cannot be controlled anymore.
This claim of success by Iran’s officials was not anticipated because they did not mention the short life span of their pride and joy, which was launched on February 3. Some Iranian websites say that because of Omid’s battery life of two months, it was doomed to destruct from the start. Now the question is how that could be possible given that most satellites use solar panels as their basic source of energy production.
The breaking news from Iran came only after the information was released by NASA that the Omid satellite was losing altitude and was about to enter the earth’s atmosphere. Omid was placed in a 312-kilometer orbit above the earth, where the optimum apogee for this kind of satellite is around 378 km (the perigee was 245 km). The Iranian bird lost about 29 km in altitude in the first 40 days.
Iranian sources tell Pajamas Media it was because of this revelation by the Americans that Iranian space officials announced the news in a hasty effort to save face, while claiming a huge success and pretending that everything was going according to plan.
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21 Comments
1. AlanABQ:There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day: we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life. –Eric Hoffer
Even aside from the above quote from Hoffer, it seems the Iranian space program & the DNC have a lot in common…
Mar 25, 2009 - 3:45 am 2. D. Grant Chee----:What is the ETA (estimated time of arrival) in Teheran, Tel Aviv or Texas? Does AhMadinejad
Mar 25, 2009 - 4:36 am 3. SAF:know the trajectory? Does a mullah or allah
know where it will impact? Will the Iranian
abortion disintegrate or burn up in the atmosphere? Was the Iranian satellite fiasco
planned by Russia or Iran; and what purpose did the sat serve? Would mohammad have approved
this unworldly expedition? What does the Q’uran say about space ventures? Is Iran training female asstranots? What will muslum females wear in space?
That’s really too bad. It will give ammo to all those who believe Iran can’t get a bomb developed. A truly successful launch perhaps might have pushed some over the fence into the Iran has real potential to make a bomb camp.
Mar 25, 2009 - 5:05 am 4. Meryl:AlanABQ
I believe you have just provided, in the quote from Eric Hoffer, an explanation for obama’s “presidency”, press conferences, cabinet appointments, spending proposals, et al.
Mar 25, 2009 - 5:22 am 5. savage24:It shows that you really don’t need technology when you have Allah.
Mar 25, 2009 - 7:35 am 6. Professor Guvinoff:A satellite does not come down because it runs out of electrical energy. It comes down because its orbit (or some arc segment of it) is too low to be safely above the upper layers of the atmosphere.
It loses its kinetic energy to aerodynamic drag, and soon comes down because the atmosphere is progressively denser at lower elevations, eventually leading to a precipitous (and potentially spectacular) fall.
from a non-technical angle, the satellite name means “hope” and the rocket’s name means “message”. This launch is meant to anounce the imminent return of the 12th Imam, the little boy who will come out of the well in which he fell a few centuries earlier to lead us to the judgment day.
We are not going to allow this glitch get in the way of the “glorious victory”, are we?
Mar 25, 2009 - 7:51 am 7. Watcher:Maybe there weren’t enough prayers going on in Iran to keep it up there. Memo to the Iranian people; get praying more!
Mar 25, 2009 - 8:15 am 8. Paul of Alexandria:It all depends on what they were trying to do. It is highly likely that the continued functionality of the satellite is completely irrelevent – thus the battery power. Nuclear warheads, after all, are usually suborbital. What I suspect that the Iranians are doing is testing their launch infrastructure and personnel.
That they are purchasing the equipment from the Russians is also not overly important. The Russians are one of the major suppliers of space-capable hardware, and many of the second-tier countries with space programs are basing their hardware on Russian designs. I rather suspect that one of the next boosters that they launch will be home-grown.
Mar 25, 2009 - 8:41 am 9. Wayne:Paul of Alexandria: Agreed. This launch was clearly not intended to initiate a communications satellite program (for example) any more than Sputnik was many decades earlier. The Iranians have now demonstrated that they can put a package anywhere on the planet that they want.
Mar 25, 2009 - 10:39 am 10. lgkick:If Iranians spend billions and can’t get a simple job done, then what is all the worries about them accessing nuclear bombs? It seems that the bomb, if launched, will explode before it leaves whatever desert it is being shot from. I guess what I am asking is that why are the israelis and US conservatives so scared of Iran when they are so clumsy? Or there is more going on and we are not told? Isn’t it enough to scare the hell out of the public and have honest policies instead of using outdated scare tactics? These scare tactics didn’t work in the US election but it worked in the Israeli election which is more important since change in the US policy can be easily cancelled by the Israel Lobby and their financial wings. Obama has to deal with the economy and his term will be over before he can make any meaningful changes in the US foreign policy. Israel has the power and the influence in the US to stop any efforts that may be harmful to its policies.
Mar 25, 2009 - 11:34 am 11. NahnCee:What does this say about Russian technology? Is it that the Russians are selling sub-standard birds, or that the Persians can’t put it together correctly, or both?
If the Persians can’t put a satellite together right, given pre-assembled parts, why are we so concerned that they can manage to build a nuke?
Mar 25, 2009 - 11:50 am 12. Marc Boyd:I have been tossing around all of these ideas on Iran lately. From what I have read, Iran will be pushing it to even build one bomb.
(1) If they do manage to get one to blow up on cue (preferred) or accidentally, they will be starting over on building more. That is assuming they try a test detonation to prove their design. Project Manhattan had a few duds before they worked the kinks out.
(2) If they can build another bomb, assuming a good test, we will all know. If they fire another rocket into space with a warhead next time, we will know it, and they will have ensured that they will be destroyed by a return attack. They bring a bomb to the fight, the world has a full arsenal to respond.
(3) My third consideration is that the religious fanatics want death and destruction to fall on their people, forcing a fulfillment of their prophesys. In other words that is their goal, and we need to take out the nuke stuff soon.
No real good options. Obaba’s “Let’s talk” strategy will work as well as Carter’s did.
Mar 25, 2009 - 3:35 pm 13. Jones:The muslim world is technologically backwards- their expertise peaked with the explosive suicide vest. Anything more complicated than a toaster, they have to buy from somewhere else.
The ‘Iranian bomb’ will likely go off in their faces when they try to assemble it.
Primitives.
Mar 25, 2009 - 4:22 pm 14. jms:so in other words, when they DO build and launch an ICBM, it could land anywhere. Nice.
Mar 25, 2009 - 4:56 pm 15. Rojer Ramjet:I’m certainly no fan of the Iranian regime, but certainly NASA has had their share of failures since they began. I wouldn’t expect them to be successful the first time out.
However, pretending that it was successful when it wasn’t is so typical of them.
Of course, what they (like North Korea) plans to do with a working rocket system should be intolerable to the rest of the world.
It’s a club, certain folks aren’t invited, too bad. Way it should be anyway.
Mar 25, 2009 - 7:27 pm 16. Frank:That’s because IRAN SUCKS AT EVERYTHING
HAW HAW! EVERYONE POINT AND LAUGH AT THE MULLAHS
Mar 25, 2009 - 8:40 pm 17. Utopia Parkway:The Russians are able to put a satellite into space. So if this one is falling down either the Russians didn’t put it into space or the Russians built the sat but the Iranians built the launcher and it’s the launcher that failed to put the thing into a correct orbit.
On the one hand I’d probably not be interested in an auto built in Iran or fly in a plane built in Iran. On the other hand they seem determined to enrich uranium and improve their rocket firing capability. It seems like either they’re trying to build a nuclear weapon or make us think they are. Doesn’t seem smart not to believe them.
Mar 25, 2009 - 9:21 pm 18. Fariborz:Well, Islamic Iran needs to build nuclear weaponry systems to continue Islamic revolution and getting some sense of security over regime change policy.
So $1 billion is nothing compare to what they have wasted since past 20 years to get their hands on nuclear enrichment system.
As long as ayatollahs can suck petrol money to fulfill their dreams, they continue to do so and people hurt the most with the crumbling economy and very poor and abusive human Rights records.
http://www.rottengods.com
Mar 25, 2009 - 9:24 pm 19. Joshua:Marc Boyd, #12: (2) If they can build another bomb, assuming a good test, we will all know. If they fire another rocket into space with a warhead next time, we will know it, and they will have ensured that they will be destroyed by a return attack. They bring a bomb to the fight, the world has a full arsenal to respond.
But does the world have the will to respond in said manner, especially knowing full well that six or seven figures’ worth of Iranian innocents would be likely to die in such a response? That’s the big question.
Mar 25, 2009 - 9:43 pm 20. BattleofthePyramids:IF their intent was to test an ICBM and or a FOB (fractional orbital bomb) then their program was entirely successful. Next time, it might be a warhead intended for an EMP attack. Detonated in the atmosphere, a massive EMP would desroy the electrical grid in the USA, crippiling us with one blow.
OR, they might be getting ready to nuke Israel. We simply don’t know. Either way, we have already demosntrated by word and action that we have no stomach for war. So, Iran can basically do whatever the Mullahs want. Without nuclear testing, our arsenal is unreliable and most likely, useless. Even if our nukes are operationa, does anyone think Obama would have the will to use them?
Mar 25, 2009 - 11:32 pm 21. John Moore:Iran has plenty of fine scientists and engineers – many got PhD’s at western universities. That a first attempt failed to reach optimal orbital parameters just ells us that they will need to tweak things a bit.
It is stupid to treat the Iranians as intellectually inferior. They aren’t. They have far more technical resources than Iraq, and Saddam was able to enrich Uranium, make nerve agents (not too hard) and make biological weapons (a little harder).
Give the Iranians time, and they’ll have a nuclear weapon deliverable anywhere on earth, and the ability to inflict a devastating EMP attack on any country on earth with only one weapon.
Mar 26, 2009 - 12:03 am