Another Iranian rocket launch has ended in failure after it apparently blew up on the launch pad

REUTERS/FARS NEWS

An Iranian space launch vehicle designed to carry satellites into orbit

• Iran conducted a third rocket launch Thursday, but satellite imagery of the launch suggests the country's latest attempt to put a satellite in orbit has ended in failure, NPR reports.
• The rocket apparently blew up on the launch pad. It marks the third failed attempt this year. Launches in January and February were both unsuccessful, with something going wrong in flight.
• The US has previously warned Iran against engaging in such activities while expressing concerns that the rocketry required to put a satellite in space could be used to develop long-range ballistic missiles to deliver nuclear warheads.
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Satellite images from Iran's latest rocket launch suggest that the rocket blew up on the launch pad, marking the country's third failed launch this year.

Photos from Thursday's launch provided to NPR by Planet Labs show smoke rising up from the Imam Khomeini Space Center. "This look likes the space launch vehicle blew up on the launch pad," Dave Schmerler, a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, told NPR.

Iran, despite warnings from the US, has tried on three separate occasions this year to put a satellite into orbit, but every attempt has so far ended in failure.

In mid-January, the rocket intended to carry a satellite into space but failed to reach the "necessary speed" during the later stages of flight, NBC reported at the time, citing Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi's comments to Iranian state media. He did not clarify exactly what went wrong but stressed that Iran would continue its work.

That failed attempt followed multiple warnings from the US urging the Iranians not to follow through on its plans. The US believes that the rocketry required to put a satellite into space could be used to develop long-range ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to a foreign target.

President Donald Trump has said that Iran's space program could help it "pursue intercontinental ballistic missile capability."

Iran conducted another launch in early February. In an interview with NBC, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif admitted the attempt ended in failure as well. In the wake of that failure, The New York Times reported that the US might be sabotaging the program.

"It's quite possible. We don't know yet," Zarif said. "We need to look into it very carefully." Expert observers have expressed skepticism of claims that Iranian satellite launch failures are attributable to a covert US sabotage campaign.

After the second failed test, Schmerler told NPR that this is "trial and error," adding that "eventually, they're going to get it right." The latest embarrassing launch suggests that Iran still has a little more work to do to make that happen.