--- title: "Batshit Iranian Regime Wants Their People To Think They Invented The Space Shuttle" description: "A huge billboard in Tehran salutes 40 years of theocratic rule by showing Iranian scientists working on their greatest achievement, the Space Shuttle." date: "2019-01-17" modified: "2019-01-17" authors: - name: "Tyler Rogoway" job_title: "Editor-in-Chief" link: "https://www.twz.com/authors/tyler-rogoway" url: "https://www.twz.com/26029/batshit-iranian-regime-wants-their-people-to-think-they-invented-the-space-shuttle" categories: - "Around The Globe" - "Iran" - "Launch Vehicles" - "Middle East" - "News & Features" - "Space" - "Space Shuttle" tags: - "Iran" - "IRGC" - "propaganda" - "Revolution" - "space shuttle" - "Valiasr Square" --- # Batshit Iranian Regime Wants Their People To Think They Invented The Space Shuttle ![]() *www.twz.com* The Iranian government has an incredible appetite for putting forward [hyperbolic technological claims]() and has little shame about backing them up those with outright laughable proof. It's one thing to claim that [a 'new' indigenously produced fighter]() aircraft that is at best a clone of a 50-year-old design is equivalent to America's front-line fighters or even making the erroneous proclamation that Iranian industry has [reproduced an equivalent]() of the [RQ-170 unmanned flying wing]() stealth drone that fell into their hands in 2011, but making it seem like Iranian scientists developed the freakin' Space Shuttle is a whole other level of bozo behavior. This is exactly what the Iranian government, and the fanatical Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in particular, is directly implying in a huge graphic that is currently displayed in Tehran's Valiasr Square. The billboard is running in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution that saw the ousting of close American ally Mohammad Reza Shah and the installation of a hardline theocratic government under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Talk about cultural appropriation! https://twitter.com/\_/status/1085935196397096960 https://twitter.com/\_/status/1085732249293778944 The timing of this display is especially laughable considering the so-called Iranian Space Agency [*just* failed yet again]() at putting a satellite into low-earth orbit. The ridiculous propaganda play makes you feel sorry for average Iranians who have to live with such childish hyperbole from a government in which they have very limited ability to reform through the democratic process. ![message-editor%2F1547756139104-ddadv.jpeg]() **Twitter image via @Hassanvand** Above all else, the billboard shows how warped the propagandists within the regime really are. There seems to be no technological claim that is too outlandish to present to the masses. In related news, we have obtained an exclusive intelligence report that shows that Iran is now working on a much more ambitious program, one that is sure to be a major source of national pride once it heads out on its first five-year voyage. Here's a snapshot of the craft from the intelligence dossier we received through undisclosed sources: ![message-editor%2F1547756069772-jdjjdc.jpg]() **Ship: El Carlos/wikicommons** *Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com* ## Author Tyler’s passion is the study of military technology, strategy, as well as foreign policy, and he has fostered a dominant voice on those topics in the defense and national security space. Tyler was the creator of the hugely popular defense site *Foxtrot Alpha* before developing *TWZ*, which he continues to lead as the Editor-In-Chief to this day. ### Author social links [Twitter]()