For Iran, which is already dealing with the coronavirus outbreak, a struggling economy and historically low oil prices, the missile launch may signal a new willingness to take risks. At home, Iran, which was initially overwhelmed by the coronavirus, is seeking to sway international opinion on U.S. sanctions by highlighting its struggles with the coronavirus outbreak. In Iran, the regional epicenter of the outbreak, the virus has killed more than 5,290 people, from among over 84,800 reported cases.

“This raises a lot of red flags,” said Fabian Hinz, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif. “Iran doesn’t have that much to lose anymore,” he added, referring to the United States’ “maximum pressure” campaign, a series of sanctions imposed against crucial industries and top officials.

On its official website, the Guards called it the first military satellite ever launched by Tehran and said the satellite had reached an orbit of 425 kilometers, about 265 miles, above the Earth’s surface.

The three-stage satellite launch took off from Iran’s Central Desert, the Guards said, without elaborating.

Mr. Hinz said, based on state media images, the launch appeared to have happened at a previously unnamed Guard base near Shahroud, Iran, about 200 miles northeast of Tehran. The base is in Semnan Province, the site of the Imam Khomeini Spaceport, from which Iran’s civilian space program operates.