TEHRAN, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Iran plans to launch a satellite soon using a ballistic missile converted into a launch vehicle, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports.
The conversion of the 800- to 1,000-mile range Shahab 3 missile could be a step in development of an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of as much as 2,500 miles. That would give Iran the ability to strike central Europe, Russia and possibly India and China, extending its range out of the Middle East.
Alaoddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said the satellite launcher has been completed.
Uzi Rubin, the former head of the Israel Missile Defense Organization, in a report to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said he believes Iran wants to launch reconnaissance satellites from its own territory.
"A reconnaissance satellite of reasonable performance should weigh about 300 kilograms (660 pounds)," Rubin said. "Once Iran learns how to put 300 kilograms into earth orbit, it could adapt the satellite launcher into an ICBM that could drop more than 300 kilograms anywhere in the world."
