Iran’s missile and rocket activity is really amazing! The media is reporting that Iran has once again launched a rocket into space. (see this Reuters report ) This time it is the “Kavosh 2”, which I assume is just a transliteration variation of last February’s Kavoshgar since both are translated as Explorer. (By the way, there is a company who, for about $100,000, will tell you “all” the variations in translation of names and other words from a foreign language into English with a percentage associated with it.)
The news reports are not giving many details yet. They do give a few tantalizing tidbits. First, the entire flight, from launch to return to Earth, lasted about 40 minutes and that it “test[ed] the separation of engine and body.” I find the 40 minutes entirely consistent with a sounding rocket whose payload reached a height of about 450 km and whose parachute opened up at about 10 km. I did this rather quickly and used a Nodong model instead of a Shahab-3B model, which probably would have gone a little higher. Presumably, the separation they are referring to was the payload. But why does that need to be tested?