Space Policy


Iran’s Recent Space Success Could Advance Nuclear Aims, Retired General Says

A Sunday launch that placed three Iranian satellites into orbit could signal the Islamic Republic’s ability to use its launch vehicles to deliver warheads to distant targets, warned retired Air Force Gen. Lance Lord, a former leader of Pentagon space efforts. Announced by Iran’s state news agency IRNA, the Sunday launch was the nation’s second successful space mission in the past month and the first to deliver multiple satellites. The three satellites, Mahda, Keyhan-2, and Hatef-1, were described by Iran as research satellites designed to test a variety of technologies including communications.

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New Race to the Moon Geostrategic Issues Dwarf Former US-Soviet Rivalry

Until December 2013, when China’s Yutu rover rolled onto the lunar surface, the United States and Russia were smug in being the only countries to successfully land spacecraft on the Moon. That exclusive club was just blown open in August 2023 by the historic success of India’s Vikram lander reaching the Moon’s south pole.

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