Iran has suffered its second orbital launch failure of the year. In January it experienced a suspected third-stage ignition failure of its larger Simorgh three-stage launch vehicle, losing the Amir Kabir 1 (Payam) satellite. Now its smaller Safir launch vehicle has also failed. While the previous failed mission flew from the Khomeini Space Centre in Semnan, this one occurred on 5 February over the nearby Semnan launch site.
This time the problem is believed to have materialised early in the flight. The failure to orbit resulted in the loss of the Dousti small imaging satellite.
