Iran's Plan To Launch A Sea Of Satellites

OK, Iran wants to launch a sea of satellites with the next one planned to fly around the end of March 2010.

Stated purpose: aid natural disaster management programs and improve telecommunications.

Real purpose: development of an Iranian ICBM program?

Iran talks about flying satellites from 50 to 150 km. That's about 30 to 90 miles, which is low. I bet they will fly a bit above that.

Check out this youtube of last year's launch.

South Korean Space Failure

The link reports half the two-piece payload fairing did not separate from the second stage as it should have. The extra weight turned the effort into another sea-sat (maybe a land sat). The fairing issue sounds analogous to the Orbiting Carbon Observatory failure, which rode on an OSC provided Taurus XL.