ACW readers love to analyze photographs and foreign missiles so I thought I would have a little contest: identifying components of the Safir second stage engine. I’ve been staring at a couple of images of the reverse side of the Safir second stage for a couple of days now trying to make sense of it …
Rethinking Freedom of Action in Orbit
by | 2009-02-12 | 12 Comments
Most of you have, by now, read the stories, including good ones by Bill Broad (who had it first) and Joel Achenbach, about the catastrophic (and possibly cascading) collision between an Iridium satellite and a defunct Russian Cosmos satellite. Geoff Forden here at Arms Control Wonk and Josh Pollack, newly installed at Total Wonkerr, are …
The Future (of Space) Is Now
by | 2009-02-11 | 37 Comments
Iridium Constellation. Note how the orbits cross each other near the poles Iridium and Cosmos Satellites Collide! Some of us have been warning about a catastrophic chain reaction of space collisions that could render near Earth orbits unusable for tens or hundreds of years. Unfortunately, it is very likely that we are going to see …
Is the Safir 2 or 3 Stages?
by | 2009-02-11 | 47 Comments
I keep meaning to write something about US nuclear posture soon, but the day-job is all consuming right now. In the meantime, I want to point out the fascinating debate begun by Geoff Forden on whether the Safir, Iran’s new space launch vehicle, has two-stages — as Iran claims — or uses a small third …
