The BBC reports "Iran has test fired its second "space rocket," though, as the United States knew after the successful launch into orbit of Sputnik in 1957, the Soviet Union's ability to arrive in orbit signaled the ability, in theory, to deliver a payload, perhaps an atomic warhead, anywhere on the surface of Earth.
Regardless, the report reads, "State media said that two more tests would be needed before an Iranian-built satellite could be launched into orbit."
Iran denied its long-range ballistic technology is linked to its atomic program, and "is already under international pressure to give up its nuclear work," which, it says, "is purely civilian."
The US referred to the February satellite launch as "unfortunate", given the questions over the recent IAEA assessment that Iran now has processed sufficient plutonium to construct an atomic bomb.
"Iranian state TV," the BBC report continues, "says the rocket was carrying a space lab and a data-monitoring and processing unit. "Kavosh 2 completed its mission and returned to earth with a special parachute after 40 minutes," the channel reported.
Iran added the rocket had been designed and built by Iranian aerospace experts, though "much of Iran's technological equipment derives from modified Chinese and North Korean" designs.
Earlier this month Iran said it had test-fired a new medium-range missile. Its 2,000-km (1,240-mile) range would be capable of reaching Western Europe."
The BBC omits the obvious fact that Kavosh, with it's 40 minute flight time, comes close to putting Iran's nominal payload within range of everywhere on Earth but the antipodes of Tehran, in the western South Pacific, coincidentally the graveyard of hundreds of satellites. The entire United States is within range of an airburst.
This tiny nation, as President-Elect Obama has called it, no longer needs Libya or an aircraft carrier for projection of force. They will soon possess the ability to negotiate with terms.
As Sting wrote in his beautiful Cold War melody of the Russians, "I hope the Iranians love their children too."
Based on their celebration of the Martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war, where 500,000 very young men died sends a strong signal that their own particular brand of Shia' Islam has instituted the very human fact that it often easier to love the dead than the living.
Meanwhile, outgoing Secretary of State US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice downplayed reports Wednesday that Iran had fired a new rocket into space, and stressed America's heightened profile in the region.
"I don't think anybody is confused about the balance of power in the Gulf," she said in response to a reporter's question at a press briefing she held at the State Department.
"The United States has had a period of enhancing the capabilities of our allies in the region," she noted, referring to new defense deals with Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia, as well as Israel. "The United States has increased its presence in the region."
She also referred the emphasis the US has put on missile defense as "the best answer to some of these Iranian efforts."
