ISA Underscores Iran's Achievements, Plans in Space Fields
TEHRAN (FNA)- Head of Iran's Space Agency (ISA) Hamid Fazeli lauded the country's achievements in the space field, specially its plans for sending big animals and even human being to short and long space journeys in the not far future.
Fazeli said the country plans to first send big animals, including chimpanzees, into the space in the near future and then send human beings aboard a bio-capsule to a specific altitude into the outer space and return them within less than 30 minutes.
"The plan for sending and returning humans to and from the space will be carried out by the next four years and the plan for sending a human being into the space and putting him into the earth's orbit will be launched in the next 10 years," Fazeli added.
The ISA head pointed out that so far only three countries have achieved the know-how.
On January 8, Secretary of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution Mokhber Dezfouli said that Iran has prepared plans to send more living creatures into the space on the back of its home-made rockets.
"The aerospace plan is a single document for the country based on which we are seeking to send living creatures into the space," Mokhber Dezfouli said in Tehran at the time.
He expressed the hope that sending living creatures by Iran will be a prelude to sending human beings into the space.
In relevant remarks in March 2012, Fazeli announced that the country plans to send a monkey into the space on the back of Kavoshgar (Explorer) 5 rocket in the near future.
He said that the Iranian shuttle, Kavoshgar-5 carrying monkey to space will be launched into space during March-August 2012.
"Kavoshgar-5 will carry a biological capsule containing a monkey into space. This is actually a prelude to preparing Iran for sending a human astronaut into space before 2021," Fazeli said at the time.
In mid-March 2011, Iran's space organization announced the launch of the Kavoshgar-4 rocket carrying a test capsule designed to house the monkey.
The capsule had been unveiled in February 2011 by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, along with four new prototypes of home-built satellites.
At the time, Fazeli called the launch of a large animal into space as the first step towards sending a man into space, which Tehran says is scheduled for 2020.
Iran has already sent small animals into space - a rat, turtles and worms - aboard a capsule carried by its Kavoshgar-3 rocket in 2010.
The Islamic republic, which first put a satellite into orbit in 2009, has outlined an ambitious space program and has, thus far, made giant progress in the field despite western sanctions and pressures against its advancement.
