Iran successfully sent a rat, turtle and worms into space in 2010. After that the country announced her plans to send a monkey into space next time. In 2011, Iran tried to send a monkey into the space but unfortunately that mission failed. But seems like Iran followed a saying: “Failures are the Pillars of Success.” Iran’s news agency IRNA has reported on Monday that Iran has successfully launched a rocket carrying a monkey into space.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in 2010 that Iran plans to send a man into space by 2019. Seems like “sending monkey into the space” is a prelude of the future mission. The primate (monkey) was strapped into a harness and it was taken into space in a “Pishgam” (Pioneer) rocket. The rocket reached an altitude of around 120km (75 miles) for a sub-orbital flight before “returning its shipment intact”.
As the monkey is perfectly fine now, it indicates that the acceleration and deceleration of the rocket were not too severe. Here’s a video.
General Vahidi, Iran’s Defense Minister said, “Today’s successful launch follows previous successes we had in launching (space) probes with other living creatures (on board). The monkey which was sent in this launch landed safely and alive and this is a big step for our experts and scientists. This success is the first step towards man conquering the space and it paves the way for other moves.”
Source: BBC, The New York Times
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