Iran marks revolution anniversary with ape in Space

Iran’s space programme unsettles Western nations Tehran – Arabstoday Iran will again try to send a live monkey into space after a previous attempt failed in 2011, media reports said on Tuesday, quoting the country’s space chief who gave a launch date for before mid-February ."The final tests for launching the capsule, carrying a monkey, have been completed," Iran's Space Organisation chief Hamid Fazeli said in remarks reported by the Mehr news agency.
Fazeli said the launch would take place during a 10-day period beginning on January 31, which marks the 34th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, the state television website reported.
Iran has already sent small animals into space -- a rat, turtles and worms -- but its previous attempt to send a live monkey into space failed in 2011, which was announced without explanation.
Fazeli said the monkey project would help Iran "implement the preparations of sending a man into space," which officials say is scheduled for 2020.
The previous project envisaged launching a capsule with life support using the Kavoshgar-5 rocket to an altitude of 120 kilometres [75 miles] for a 20-minute sub-orbital flight.
Iran says it has successfully launched three satellites - Omid in February 2009, Rassad in June 2011 and Navid in February 2012.
But it postponed, without explanation, another planned satellite launch in May.
Iran's space programme deeply unsettles Western nations, which fear it could be used to develop ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads they suspect are currently being developed in secret inside Iran.
Tehran has repeatedly denied that its nuclear and scientific programmes mask military ambitions.
Source: AFP