Iran announces placement of new military satellite in orbit

Iran said on Tuesday that it has successfully placed a military satellite in orbit. The development has come just when talks to revive 2015 nuclear deal have reached a critical stage.

"Iran's second military satellite -- named Nour-2 -- has been launched into space by the Qassed rocket of the aerospace wing of the evolutionary Guards and successfully placed in orbit 500 kilometres (310 miles) above the Earth," the official IRNA news agency reported.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps described the Nour-2 as a "reconnaissance satellite" in a statement on its Sepah News website.

Iran successfully put its first military satellite into orbit in April 2020, drawing a sharp rebuke from Washington.

Sepah News said Tuesday that the Nour-1 was "still fully operational and transmitting data".

The United States has repeatedly voiced concern that such launches could boost Iran's ballistic missile technology.

But Iran insists it is not seeking nuclear weapons and that its satellite and rocket launches are for civil or defensive purposes only.

At the end of December, Iran announced it had failed to put in orbit "three research cargos" carried by Simorgh (Phoenix) satellite carrier as the rocket was unable to reach the required speed.

In January, Iran tested a solid-fuel rocket for its satellite programme, state media reported.

(With inputs from agencies)