AT A GLANCE
• Iran tests rocket in space with a live monkey on board
• Officials claimed the primate was alive when it returned from the 75-mile high sub-orbital flight
• Iran’s Islamic regime previously failed to put a rhesus monkey into space in a Kavoshgar-5 rocket in 2011
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IRAN has fired a rocket into space — with a live MONKEY on board.
Officials claimed the primate was alive when it returned from the 75-mile high sub-orbital flight.
Iran’s Islamic regime previously failed to put a rhesus monkey into space in a Kavoshgar-5 rocket in 2011.
But aerospace chiefs announced earlier this month they would try again as part of plans to send a human astronaut into space by 2020 and put a man on the moon by 2025.
The country’s space programme deeply unsettles Western nations, who fear it could be used to develop nuclear missiles.
Tehran has repeatedly denied that its nuclear and scientific programmes mask military ambitions.
In a statement, Iran’s defence ministry's aerospace department said: "Iran successfully launched a capsule, codenamed Pishgam (Pioneer), containing a monkey and recovered the shipment on the ground intact.”
Iranian Space Agency chief Hamid Fazeli suggested earlier this month the launch would take place during the first half of February, when the Iranian Revolution is typically commemorated.
He added: "Testing phase of these living capsules has ended and monkeys to be sent to space are now in quarantine."
In 2010, Iran sent a rat, two turtles and a worm into space.
