That's one less hurdle to developing an intercontinental nuke and this time they're not bullshitting:

Iran says it's sent a domestically-built satellite into orbit. It's a troubling development, if true. Much of the gear and the know-how behind a space launch can also be used for ballistic missiles... The Omid ("hope") satellite was allegedly sent into space on top of a two-stage, 72-foot-long, 26-ton Safir ("messenger") rocket, which uses "a modified version of Iran's most advanced ballistic missile system, the Shahab-3, as its first stage," the Arms Control Association believes. "A liquid-fueled second stage and possibly a small solid-fueled third stage" may follow, the New York Times notes. Getting such a launcher right is key to Iran's military. The Shahab-3 has a reported maximimum range of 1200 miles. To go any further than that require[s] "mastering the staging process," Arms Control Association notes. Earlier multi-stage rocket tests flopped, despite claims to the contrary. If this one worked, it means Tehran could threaten cities thousands of miles away.

The State Department expressed "grave concern." That adequately describes the seriousness of the situation, I think:

On the plus side, it's likely that the CIA had no idea that this was coming because our intel on Iran sucks. It doesn't suck enough to prevent State Department washouts from using the Pentagon's ethos to publish a garbage NIE that detonated Bush's anti-Iran efforts. It sucks just enough to make sure that we couldn't actually do anything about the actually existing program.

You know what would really suck right now? If it turned out that Obama was intent on gutting the missile defense systems that are within our technological reach while making it clear that we're prepared to roll with an Iranian nuke.

Tick tock.

References and previously after the jump...