The Amos-4 communications satellite was successfully launched into space on Saturday night from Kazakhstan.

Spacecom, operator of the AMOS satellite fleet, announced that Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has selected Space International Services, Ltd. (SIS) to launch the AMOS-4 commercial satellite. The launch is scheduled to take place this Saturday night from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

AMOS-4 will be the second AMOS satellite launched by SIS on its Zenit-3SLB launch vehicle. AMOS-3 was launched to its 4ºW orbital position in 2008 on the same vehicle. AMOS-4′s launch weight will be approximately 4.2 tons, demonstrating that SIS has significantly increased the Zenit-3SLB vehicle’s performance since the AMOS-3 launch.

The satellite is expected to have a lifespan of 12 years.

Here are some photos from its construction and transportation to the launch site.

Cool. I wish I was going with it.

After the Europeans pulled the plug on Iranian satellite transmissions because of the sanctions against Iran, Iranian stations are back on the air.

The Iranians have reportedly transferred their transmissions over to a Russian satellite, once again bypassing the sanctions against them.

The Wall Street Journal reports that up until October 15, IRIB (Iran’s broadcast company) was using the services of Eutelsat Communications for broadcasting.

Rather ironically, just a week earlier, Iran was jamming the signal from the Eutelsat satellite when it showed Iranian citizens protesting.

Iran has been jamming many satellite transmissions as of late, including those of Voice of America -Persion service, and BBC Persian.

New satellite images show possible recent nuclear activity at the Parchin facility in Iran as well as attempts to hide evidence of past activity.

A May 25 image of the facility east of Tehran revealed “ground-scraping activity” and the presence of bulldozers, according to diplomats quoted by international news services who attended a closed-door briefing by United Nations nuclear agency officials on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the Institute for Science and International Security posted a similar image on its website. Its image showed that two buildings that previously had been located on the site were razed, according to reports.

Last March, according to the International Atomic Energy Association, the nuclear watchdog of the U.N., satellite images showed crews and vehicles cleaning up radioactive evidence of a test nuclear explosion.

The United States, China, France, Russia, Germany and Great Britain jointly called on Iran to grant inspectors access to the site. An IAEA report last year said that construction developments at Parchin are “strong indicators of possible weapon development.” Iran has dismissed the charges against Parchin as “childish” and “ridiculous,” Reuters reported.

This most recent image is believed to be further evidence that Iran is “sanitizing” the site of any incriminating evidence before possibly allowing IAEA inspectors into the complex.

At Wednesday’s briefing, IAEA deputy director Gen. Herman Nackaerts presented the satellite images indicating that at least two small buildings had been removed.

Nackaerts did not elaborate on what he believed was happening at the site, apart from reiterating that the agency needed to go there to clarify the issue, diplomats told reporters.

Al Arabia reports today that former Syrian TV anchor Hani al-Mazali admitted to taking part in an organized campaign to tarnish the image of pro-democracy protests and accused state media of being accomplice in the killing of innocent civilians. “The Syrian media made a grave mistake when it decided to side with the regime instead of becoming the mouthpiece of the people,” he told the channel in the first interview after his resignation and departure from Syria.

Mazali, who was a news presenter, said he decided to leave his job because he could no longer continue misleading people and preferred to respect the audience as well as the memory of martyrs.

“It doesn’t make any sense that state TV would host more than 1,000 writers, political analysts, and artists who do nothing except praise the regime and lash out at protesters.”

Mazali added that he and other people working in state media took part in promoting the regime’s lies which revolved around foreign agendas and Islamist plots to undermine the state as well as slam satellite channels for saying the truth.

“In the news we presented, we portrayed all members of the opposition as traitors and turned martyrs into terrorists who were affiliated to gangs that work for foreign powers.”

Researchers at the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, plan to build and launch into space a fleet of coordinated miniature satellites.

The project, which will be unveiled officially on Monday, is the first time scientists will attempt such a procedure. “This is the first time in the world that scientists will attempt sending three satellites together in a controlled formation,” project head Professor Pini Gurfil said. “Until now, this has not been possible because of their size and weight and the problems of dispatching multiple satellites in a uniform formation and their remaining in space for a long time.”

Gurfil praised the practical implications of a successful launch, saying that such satellites could be utilized to locate individuals that are lost, missing, or in distress.