Effort is believed to be part of Tehran's commercial satellite project
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran said Sunday it successfully tested a rocket that
went into space, apparently part of its drive to launch five satellites
into orbit by 2010.

Iran's Science and Technology and Defense ministries built the craft,
state-run television quoted Mohsen Bahrami, the head of Iran's Space
Research Center, as saying.

Bahrami provided no other details beyond saying that Iran had
successfully launched what he called a space rocket or space missile.

Iran in the past has announced that it wanted to be able to send its own
satellites, including commercial ones, into orbit. But it has revealed
little information about the project.

In 2005, Iran launched its first such satellite in a joint project with
Russia.

Iran hopes to launch four more satellites by 2010, the government has
said, to increase the number of land and mobile telephone lines to 80
million from 22 million and expand the number of Internet users to 35
million from 5.5 million in the next five years.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17326341/