Monday, January 28, 2013

Iran launches a monkey into space

28 January 2013


The Islamic Republic of Iran has sent a monkey into space aboard an indigenous biocapsule as a prelude to sending humans into space. The space capsule, code-named Pishgam (Pioneer), was launched on Monday on the auspicious birthday anniversary of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). On January 15, the director of Iran Space Agency (ISA) Hamid Fazeli said because of biological similarities between humans and monkeys, the latter were selected for the space mission.


Fazeli further highlighted that the plan to send animals into the space is part of a broader project to send human beings on space missions. The ISA director stated that Iran's first manned mission to space would be launched within the next five to eight years. Elsewhere in his remarks, Fazeli said the indigenous Sharifsat satellite will be put into the orbit by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2013).







Western nations have expressed concern that Iran's space programme is being used to develop long-range missiles.
Such missiles could potentially be used to carry nuclear warheads.
Iran denies it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons and insists its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.
Turtle and worms

Satellite technology expert Pat Norris told the BBC that Iran's claim to have sent a monkey into space was not a major advance on what its space programme had already achieved.




The monkey was sent up in a Kavoshgar rocket dubbed "Pishgam" (Pioneer)

The achievement was similar to launching a missile at 4,828km/h (3,000mph) and having its warhead survive the flight - something Iran had done in several tests in recent years, he noted.

However, the survival of the monkey, without incurring any injuries, would demonstrate that the acceleration and deceleration of the rocket were not too severe, Mr Norris added.

In 2010, Iran successfully sent a rat, turtle and worms into space. But an attempt to send a monkey up in a rocket failed in 2011.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in 2010 that the country planned to send a man into space by 2019.

A domestically-made satellite was sent into orbit for the first time in 2009.