Iran to send living creature into space: Official

[SOHEIL]

Head of Iran’s Space Agency (ISA)
Hamid Fazeli says the country plans to
send a living organism into space on
board the Pishgam (Pioneer) satellite
carrier in the near future.

“Iran’s Space Agency (ISA) is fully
prepared to send the Pishgam satellite
carrier bearing a bio-capsule with a living
creature,” Fazeli said Sunday.

He expressed hope that the Pishgam
satellite carrier, previously known as the
Kavoshgar 5 (Explorer 5), would “soon” be
successfully launched into space carrying a
monkey.

Iran sent its first bio-capsule of living
creatures into space in February 2010,
using the indigenous Kavoshgar 3 carrier.
The country successfully launched its first
indigenous data-processing satellite, Omid
(Hope), into orbit in 2009.
As part of a plan to develop its space
program, Iran also successfully launched
its second satellite, dubbed Rassad
(Observation), into the earth's orbit in
June 2011. Rassad's mission was to take
images of the Earth and transmit them
along with telemetry information to
ground stations.
Iran also launched its domestically-built
Navid-e Elm-o Sanat (Harbinger of Science
and Industry) satellite into orbit in
February 2012. The records made by the
telecom, measurement and scientific
satellite could be used in a wide range of
fields.
Iran is one of the 24 founding members
of the United Nations' Committee on the
Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which was
set up in 1959.

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