The Safir-2, described as a heavily modified version of a North Korean Taepo-Dong-1-class rocket, can't carry more than a 220-pound payload into space.
But Iran has announced plans to launch a satellite into space next year with the ability place a payload of about 1,500 pounds into orbit.
"Iranians are calling for a booster technology that would be capable of carrying much heavier payloads that would be the equivalent of an ICBM," or intercontinental ballistic missile, said Charles Vick, a senior analyst at GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-area think tank. "They are indeed catching up with the requirements for longer-range missiles."
The launch coincided with celebrations associated with the upcoming 30th anniversary of Iran's Islamic Revolution, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led the uprising that ousted the pro-American monarch Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and established the contemporary world's first theocracy.
Reza Taqipour, head of the state-owned Iranian Aerospace Organization, said Iran hoped to launch its first manned space mission by 2021, or 1400 in the Persian calendar.
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daragahi@latimes.com
Times staff writer Julian E. Barnes in Washington and Gabby Sobelman of The Times' Jerusalem Bureau contributed to this report.
