MOSCOW, 23 APR – RIA Novosti. The American military discovered in the orbit of the new Iranian satellite launched on Wednesday, said 18 squadron space surveillance United States air force.
Iranian military said that on April 22 with the help of the carrier rocket “Cased” (“Messenger”) orbit at an altitude of 425 kilometers was launched the first military satellite of “Nur” (“Light”). As stated later, the Deputy head of the joint chiefs of staff U.S. army General John Khayten, United States was watching the Iranian space launch, but he noted that has no information on whether the launch is successful.
“Eighteenth squadron space surveillance USAF keeps track of two object – Sputnik Nur (room 45529 in the catalog of space objects) and stage of the rocket “Cased” (number 45530) from space launch from Iran”, – stated in the message on the page of the squadron on Twitter.
Earlier on the dedicated website of the U.S. air force space-track.org published information about the detection in orbit of the new object after reports of the launch of the Iranian satellite, but that’s what it is, is not explicitly stated. The object number 45529 and international designation 2020-024А was in orbit with a minimum altitude of 426 miles and maximum 444 km and inclination to the equator 59.8 degrees.
Based at Vandenberg air force base (California) 18 squadron space surveillance USAF is engaged in the detection, tracking and identification of all artificial objects in earth orbit.
Since 2009, Iran successfully orbited five satellites, including four with the help of a Safir rocket.
