It's standard language used by the press. As explained further up the comment chain, very few nations have the capability to even put a satellite into orbit. T

It's standard language used by the press. As explained further up the comment chain, very few nations have the capability to even put a satellite into orbit. The notability is that they have a satellite up for their purposes; they're not trying to claim that they did the launch themselves. If this were some random corporation, none of you wouldn't have blinked an eyelid at a title like "Megacorp successfully launches first satellite" when all but 3-4 companies in the world rely on someone else to do the launch. There's more hair-splitting going on here than in a hair salon.