The evidence is mounting that the Iranian rocket recently used to launch a satellite was more powerful and advanced than initially thought. Iran entered the exclusive club of nations capable of putting things in Earth orbit on 2 February, when it launched a small satellite using a homegrown rocket for the first time. Called Omid, or “Hope”, the satellite is a 40-centimetre-wide cube with a mass of 27 kilograms. But there has been much debate about whether the rocket that launched it was relatively crude and inefficient, operating at the limits of its capabilities, or a more advanced type that could eventually be upgraded to put astronauts in orbit. Iran has released few details about the rocket, called Safir-2, leaving outsiders to guess at its capabilities.
