On 22 June at 02:14 a.m. local time, B-2 bombers released at least a dozen 30,000-lb GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs targeting Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. By noon on 22 June, Planet Labs Skysat imagery showed a pale-grey haze over Fordow and two dark impact scars at the vehicle and personnel tunnel portals. Fordow lies…
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On 22 June at 10:22 UTC, Maxar released 0.5-meter imagery showing three circular Fordow blast scars about 25 meters across at the portal area. Planet Labs’ SkySat captured higher-cadence shots showing eastward dust clouds and bulldozers arriving by noon local time. Five classic penetrator indicators are visible in Fordow imagery: entry craters, radial debris ejection,…
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Fordow lies beneath roughly 90 metres of limestone outside Qom and houses Iran’s most advanced uranium-enrichment cascades, with enrichment reaching 60% by June 2025 per the IAEA. Fordow was exposed by Western intelligence in 2009, had activity frozen under the JCPOA from 2013 to 2015, and restarted enrichment from 2019 to 2024, reaching 60% in…
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Fordo, officially Shahid Ali-Mohammadi Nuclear Facility, sits about 30 km northeast of Qom, Iran, built into a mountain on an IRGC base and buried 80–90 meters underground. Western intelligence uncovered Fordo, and Iran formally notified the IAEA on 21 September 2009, shortly after the United States, the United Kingdom and France publicly revealed knowledge of…
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On 21 June 2025, the U.S. strike package used B-2 launched GBU-57 bunker-busters and sea-launched Tomahawks to damage Natanz and Isfahan and cut external power to Fordow. Maxar Technologies and Planet imagery circulated minutes after President Trump’s confirmation, enabling open-source observers to map bomb craters, scorched roads, and collapsed roofs at Natanz and Isfahan. IAEA…
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Maxar imagery taken 24 hours after Israel’s first wave shows two main halls at Natanz collapsed and scorch marks across adjoining centrifuge assembly buildings, while Isfahan reveals precision craters on the centrifuge‑production workshop. Photos published of the Arak/Khondab heavy‑water reactor show shrapnel holes in the under‑construction dome and distillation towers toppled at the neighbouring heavy‑water…
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On June 14, 2025, after Israeli strikes, Iran imposed a nationwide internet blackout, and Elon Musk tweeted that Starlink was “The beams are on,” effectively activating Starlink over Iran. The activation made Starlink connectivity available only to users with Starlink terminals, not to the entire Iranian population. Estimates by late 2024 placed roughly 10,000 to…
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February 2009: Iran becomes the ninth country to launch an indigenous satellite with its own rocket, sending Omid into orbit on the Safir launcher. Khayyam (2022) is a 600 kg Earth-observation satellite with 1-meter resolution, built with Russian collaboration and launched by a Russian Soyuz to a ~500 km orbit. Noor-1, Iran’s first military satellite,…
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1957 – The Atoms for Peace agreement between the United States and Iran launches Iran’s civil nuclear program. 1967 – Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) is a 5 MW reactor supplied by the United States, using weapons-grade uranium fuel (93% enriched). 1968–1970 – Iran signs and ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); IAEA safeguards enter force…
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