Ads from us and 3rd parties may be included based on our understanding. The take off, which is tipped to happen at Iran's Imam Khomeini Spaceport, comes after Iranian state media published a list of planned satellite launches in the works for the Islamic Republic's civilian space program. These were beset by a series of failed launches. The Iranian military revolutionary guard, which runs its own parallel program, successfully blasted a satellite into orbit last year.
Iranian officials are meeting EU and US negotiators in Vienna to try and revive the 2015 nuclear deal so Iran can limit its uranium enrichment programme. A space launch while the Vienna talks go ahead fits the hard line posture struck by Tehran's negotiators and could exacerbate the tensions between Iran and the West. The new Iranian administration has already described six previous rounds of diplomacy as a draft that sent the West into a fury as they try to limit Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities. The US claims that Iran's satellite launches do not conform to the UN Security Council resolution calling for Iran to undertake no activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Iran has argued that its satellite launches and rocket tests do not have a military component. It claims that it has not violated the UN resolution as it only called upon Tehran not to conduct such tests.
The latest satellite images taken on Saturday by Planet Labs Inc show activity at the spaceport in the desert plains of the rural Semnan province in Iran, about 240 kilometres 150 miles southeast of Tehran. A support vehicle was spotted next to a huge white gantry that normally houses a rocket on the launchpad. That support vehicle was snapped in other satellite pictures at the site just before a launch. A hydraulic crane with a railed platform that is likely to service the rocket can be seen in the satellite images and has also been seen before previous launches. There is an increase in the number of cars at the spaceport, which may indicate the possibility of increased activity before a big space launch, according to recent satellite images at the spaceport.