The Cedar IV launched in 1963 was so successful that it was 
  commemorated on a stamp. It reached a height of 90 miles (145 km), 
  putting it close to the altitude of satellites in low-earth orbit.

So, sounding rockets, not orbital rockets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounding_rocket

Quoting myself, from 3 years ago:

  An object in orbit is both high and fast. *Really* high (160km) and 
  *really* fast. (7.8km/s) 
  
  7.8 kilometres per second is 17,000 miles per hour.

They were far, far away from actually putting an object in orbit. Altitude's the easy part, speed's the hard part.

Far from orbit, but still a very impressive achievement, particularly in 1963. As far as I'm aware, no other amateur rocket club has had that kind of success since.

Am certainly not aware of mechanics of a rocket but from below quote and [1], seems they weighed in around 1250Kg , given its 1960's and its a tiny state , seems like something few could do .

>> Cedar III launched in 1962 had a length of seven metres and weight of 1,250 kg

[1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_rocket

Arrrgh, but Lambda-4 was kinda similar... pretty light and quite simple, yet orbital launcher it was. So may be Lebanon had a way forward, which could lead them to orbit...

The Lambda-4 was approximately 9,000kg[1], so we're still talking about a different order of magnitude here.

1: http://orbitalaspirations.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/japanese-la...

If 160km is considered "really high" then what is a geo-statoionary satellite? Super really mega ultra high?

This is a repost. Original discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6732210

There is also a well thought out documentary on the subject that I saw at the MoMA recently: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2361348/

[Edit] Another thought about the Lebanese Rocket Society... this story isn't just about the nascent rise and fall of a small country's space exploration program. It is also about it's diverse demographics and the strength that arises from a multi-cultural population. In this case the story is about Manougian, an Armenian, who lived in Lebanon for only a few years. The story points to the resourcefulness and ambition of the Armenians in Lebanon.

As a Lebanese person, it's sad to see that this part of our history isn't taught to us. I only found out about it when the original article was written. Such a shame that the Lebanese (with quite a few exceptions, especially among millennials) have given up on intellectual progress.

In that region, Jordan seems to have taken up that task. They are making major moves forward in R and D.

More lite a rocket programme than a space programme.

The comment insinuates that Lebanon equates to Hezbollah. Most Lebanese would probably disagree...

Most Lebanese don't equate to Hezbollah, but unfortunately, Lebanon as a state (or, more precisely, as a state-like territory) more or less does.

Shortly after independence, Zambia also briefly had an unofficial space program:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/10/old-we...

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-almost-forgotten-zambia...

I want to emphasize the word unofficial there - you never learn about this in the Zambian history curriculum.

It was just a bunch of crackpots playing at being astronauts.

Great story :-)

Sounds a lot like "October Sky".