WE'VE seen happier-looking astronauts. Last August, the Iranian Space Agency announced plans to send a monkey into space: now it seems to have done so.
Photos of the launch - and of the rhesus monkey strapped into a small seat ready for lift-off - were released on the space agency's website and on Iranian television. The report has not been confirmed independently, however, and the US air force has not reported seeing any missile launches from Iran. But some independent observers are convinced. "Really, I see no reason not to take their word for it," says Jonathan McDowell at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The reports say the rocket was launched straight up to an altitude of 120 kilometres, not high enough to reach orbit, and came back down with a parachute. The monkey survived. Iran says it is a step towards sending humans into space, which the country aims to do in the next five to eight years.
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