Launch News Iranian Launches:

[insanity]

Considering my ancestral background there, I would say without hesitation: YES!

Okay, but what if I told you that many people have ancestors who were guaranteed a homeland after World War II and lost it the next day? They would neighbor Israel, who was also just created so the Jews could have a home after the war. However, Israel decided they wanted their land too so they claimed it all and put up settlements there.

If you think your ancestral heritage is good enough to constitute prudential foreign policy, than I think we need to arm the Dutch to the teeth so they can reclaim their trading empire.

Something tells me they would gladly die knowing that if they strike first, and we or Israel counterstike, they have a satisfaction of an accomplished mission.

Something tells me that the opposite would be true. I think Iran is making the calculation that having a bomb (or looking like you could have one soon) will shore up domestic political support and give them leverage in the international arena.

 

[Urwumpe]

Why do we need to support Israel? So they can pursue Zionist foreign policy in spite of international law?

I have to agree there. There is no difference in the politics of Serbia during the 1990s, which we bombed, and Israel in the past decades.

Of course, Serbia also had terrorists to fight... and who is a terrorist is defined by the guy who kills them.

But what should we do? Leave Israel alone and turn them one step more into a fourth Reich by becoming more paranoid? Or be really strict, and protect those who need protection on BOTH sides of the border?

 

[Star Voyager]

If you think your ancestral heritage is good enough to constitute prudential foreign policy, than I think we need to arm the Dutch to the teeth so they can reclaim their trading empire.

I was referring to when they had it 2 thousand years ago.

 

[Urwumpe]

I was referring to when they had it 2 thousand years ago.

I doubt they had it 2000 years ago. They just think they are related to the people who lived there.

 

[insanity]

I was referring to when they had it 2 thousand years ago.

You are aware that the history of the region is far older than 2 thousand years?

Hell, the Persian Empire took control of the region 538 years before anyone knew who Jesus was. We could go back further, before civilization began to discover if the descendants of the first settlers were Arabic and Israeli.

 

[tl8]

Did I miss something, because I thought this thread is about Iran and its rockets

 

[computerex]

This is the real world...Any notion of "right and wrong" is very naive indeed, things are nearly always about self preservation, personnel benefit. I don't think there is enough evidence to pass judgement on Iran's true motives. But if they are indeed attempting to attain nuclear weapons, no one can really blame them. All we can do is stop them, for our own preservation. We may fool ourselves into believing that what we are doing is "morally right", that it is for "cumulative benefit". But the reality is simply that we are acting for our own preservation. Performing actions that we may define as immoral for others to perform are justified when we are the ones performing them. Self interest.

So if Iran wants to acquire nuclear weapons, the U.S should retaliate, and prevent them from doing so. However it is quite, quite annoying to hear people attempt to sugar coat these situations to ease their consciousness.

 

[Notebook]

...

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66M3UU20100723

Iran aims to put man in space by 2019: Ahmadinejad

(Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that Iran would send its first manned shuttle into space by 2019, Iran's English-language Press TV reported.

In February Iran test-fired its domestically made satellite carrying rocket Kavoshgar-3 (Explorer-3) and Ahmadinejad said Tehran hoped to send astronauts into space soon.

"In response to the enemy's resolutions, it was decided that the project be pushed forward by five years," Ahmadinejad said on Friday, referring to Iran's shuttle program.

Shuttle? :WTF:

 

[computerex]

They are gonna buy the shuttles from the U.S

 

[SiberianTiger]

They are gonna buy the shuttles from the U.S

I feel the second Irangate is looming...

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

BBC News: "Iran aims to send man into space by 2019".

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Xinhua: "Iran plans to send astronauts to space by 2017: president".

 

[N_Molson]

Perhaps it could be a best interest for the USA to field test parts of their ABM defense technology that work in the terminal phase of a missile's trajectory (such as THAAD).

I agree, reliable, advanced anti-missle weaponry would be a very valuable asset in this situation. An open war with Iran would be a disaster for the two countries, even without nuclear weapons. Surrounding countries would probably get into it quickly too, you could have a terrible conflict including Irak & Afghanistan.

"The plan is in line with an Iran space agency program to produce and place in orbit a spacecraft at an altitude of more than 35,000 km," the report quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on Thursday.

Huh... that seems weird... a reentry from a GEO altitude would be almost as risky as a lunar re-entry... If you can get humans here, the moon is at reach...

 

[Jarvitä]

Huh... that seems weird... a reentry from a GEO altitude would be almost as risky as a lunar re-entry... If you can get humans here, the moon is at reach...

Actually, it sounds like the manned spacecraft and GEO satellite are separate projects. It hardly makes sense to send manned spacecraft to GEO - if you can reach a circular orbit at 37Mm, you can reach an elliptic orbit of 200km by 400Mm.

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186552.html

Kavoshgar 4 (Explorer 4) satellite carrier

Iran plans to send monkey to space
Tue Jun 28, 2011 4:48AM


Head of Iran Space Agency (ISA) Hamid Fazeli says the country plans to send a live monkey into space onboard the country's domestically-made Kavoshgar 5 (Explorer 5) satellite carrier.

“Kavoshgar 5, with a weight of 285 kg, will blast off into space with a living creature (a monkey) in the next Iranian calendar month (that begins on July 23),” IRNA quoted Fazeli as saying on Monday.

He further explained that Kavoshgar 5 has a structural built similar to the Omid (Hope) satellite, Iran's first domestically-produced satellite which launched into orbit in 2009.

The Omid data-processing satellite was designed to circle the Earth 15 times per day and to transmit data via two frequency bands and eight antennas to an Iranian space station.

Fazeli also pointed out that five monkeys are currently undergoing experiments to get ready for the launch. The monkeys are taking exercises to “withstand physical and orbital pressure, acceleration, sound [boom], vibrations and other elements during the lift-off.”

The ISA head noted that certain changes have been made in the subsystem of the Kavoshgar 5 carrier and said it needs to use liquid fuel as it has been modified to accelerate more than its previous prototypes.

On June 20, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran has obtained the technology to develop different satellites and will soon launch giant satellites that will be placed in circular orbits at an altitude of nearly 35,000 kilometers (21,748 miles) above the Earth's surface.

The space capsule designed to carry the living creature was unveiled by President Ahmadinejad in February.

In February, the Iranian chief executive unveiled Kavoshgar 4 (Explorer 4) and three other national satellites-- Fajr (Dawn), Rasad (Observation), Amirkabir I, Zafar (Victory) and the Kavoshgar 4 (Explorer 4) satellite carrier.

On March 17, Iran successfully launched its first domestically-made bio-capsule of 'sustaining life' by producing oxygen by the use of dry ice into space by Kavoshgar 4 satellite carrier.

Fazeli had previously said that Kavoshgar's first mission was intended to assess the performance of the space explorer's systems and subsystems along with the launching pad, elevating mechanism, and the bio-capsule.

Iran is one of the 24 founding members of the United Nations' Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which was set up in 1959.

Tehran also plans to launch the country's first manned mission to space by 2019.