SBS World News just announced a news flash that Iran claims to have launched a space rocket. They said no other details were available.

See Update 4 – they didn’t it turns out..

Radio Javan has the following:

According to the head of the Iranian Aerospace Research Institute, the first Iranian space rocket has been successfully launched into space. The rocket has carried a system made in Iran and named Kaavesh (search). The launch time has not been mentioned. However, the rocket seems (based on a previous report) to have been launched in January or February 2007.

Update: The Radio Javan page links to a story at the Iranian Student News Agency (non-English) that has a picture with the Iranian flag and a rocket..

Update 2: The Iranian Space Agencies web site has a news page, but that’s missing in action (it does say the site is under construction).

Update 3: The International Herald Tribune has a story, saying:

Iran on Sunday said it had successfully tested what it called a rocket that had reached spaced (sic). The announcement, made on state-run television, was unclear, but appeared to refer to Iran’s efforts to launch commercial satellites into orbit.

Further updates are breaking via news agencies, track them through Google News.

Update 4: Contradictory Iranian government sources say that it was just a sub-orbital research rocket, also known as a sounding rocket.

Iran has launched a sub-orbital rocket for scientific research not a missile capable of reaching space as earlier reported, an aerospace official told an Iranian news agency today. Ali Akbar Golrou, the executive deputy of Iran’s aerospace research centre, told Fars News Agency the rocket would not stay in orbit but could rise to about 150km into atmosphere before falling to earth by parachute.