Members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) gather around the coffins fellow IRGC members who were killed by a suicide car bomb, during their funerals in Isfahan, Iran, Feb. 16, 2019. Photo: Morteza Salehi/ Tasnim News Agency/via Reuters.

i24 News – Iran on Saturday said a satellite was successfully put into orbit as part of its civil and paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) space program, its state-run news agency announced.

The Soraya satellite was placed in an orbit at some 460 miles above the Earth’s surface with a three-stage rocket, IRNA news agency announced. The Associated Press added it would be the highest orbit achieved by Iran.

The Iranian announcement acknowledged the launch was part of the IRGC’s space program, as well as the civilian program, but did not say what the satellite would do.

Last year, a worldwide threat assessment by the U.S. intelligence community highlighted the development of such satellite launch vehicles as shortening “the timeline” for Iran to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile which could carry a nuclear warhead.

“Iran’s nuclear escalation is all the more concerning at a time when Iran as well as Iran-backed militant groups and Iran’s proxies continue their dangerous and destabilizing activities in the region,” a spokesperson from the U.S. State Department said on January 10.

The most recent report by an atomic watchdog reported that Iran returned to enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, close to weapons grade, at the sites in Fordow and Natanz.