Iran launches first domestic made satellite

By Fredrik Dahl and Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said it had launched a domestically made satellite into orbit for the first time on Tuesday, prompting further concern among Western powers and in Israel over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Iran said the launch of the Omid (Hope) research and telecom satellite was a major step in its space technology timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed shah.

The long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit could also be used for launching warheads, although Iran says it has no plans to do so.

"Dear Iranian nation, your children have placed the first indigenous satellite into orbit," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a televised message, adding the launch was successful.

Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said Omid was orbiting earth. The ISNA news agency quoted him as saying: "We have established communications with it and the necessary information has been received."

Sending the Omid into space is a message to the world that Iran is "very powerful and you have to deal with us in the right way," an Iranian political analyst said.

In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "Efforts to develop missile delivery capability, efforts that continue on an illicit nuclear program, or threats that Iran makes towards Israel and its sponsorship of terror are of acute concern to this administration."

Gibbs repeated the words President Barack Obama has used since taking over last month that Washington will "use all elements of our national power to deal with Iran and to help it be a responsible member of the international community."