Iran to send monkey into orbit

Iran will send a monkey into orbit by mid-September, IRNA news agency quotes the Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi as reporting.

He said the monkey will be sent into orbit with Kavoshgar-4 missile. "At present, preparatory work is underway to launch this satellite into orbit," he added.

In February 2010, Iran successfully test-fired the Kavoshgar-3 rocket, which carried one rodent, two turtles, and several worms into space and returned them to Earth alive. In August 2010 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the country will send its first astronaut into space in 2017. "Recently we have sent living organisms into space. According to the Iranian Space Agency's program, the first astronaut should have been sent into space in 2024, but the state prematurely was able to implement some programs, and Iran's first astronaut will fly to space in 2017," Ahmadinejad said.

He said that big changes will occur in global diplomacy by sending the first Iranian astronaut into space.


/AzerTAc/