17/08/2008 Iran successfully launched its first home-produced communications satellite into space on Sunday, state media reported. "President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad was at the launch of the communications satellite Omid (Hope) from Iran's space station," government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said, according to the Fars news agency.
  
A statement from the Iranian armed forces said it was the first launch of the domestically-built satellite, the official news agency IRNA reported. In February, Iran said it had sent a probe into space on the back of a rocket on a mission to prepare for the satellite launch. Iran has pursued a space program for several years, and in October 2005 a Russian-made Iranian satellite named Sina-1 was put into orbit by a Russian rocket.
  
Sunday's launch comes amid tensions between Iran and the international community over Tehran's refusal to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment activities -- which some Western countries fear could be used to make a nuclear weapon.