DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Saturday launched a new satellite-carrying rocket, state TV reported, seeking to demonstrate the hard-line force’s prowess even as anti-government protests rage across the country.
Iranian state TV said the Guard successfully launched the solid-fueled rocket—what it called a Ghaem-100 satellite carrier—and aired dramatic footage of the rocket blasting off from a desert launch pad into a cloudy sky. The report did not reveal the location, which resembled Iran’s northeastern Shahroud Desert.
The state-run IRNA news agency reported that the carrier would be able to put a satellite weighing 80 kilograms (176 pounds) into orbit some 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Earth….