Iran has announced plans to send a into space by the end of November as part of its strategy to eventually have a manned spaceflight program, according to an Iranian web site called Press TV.
The move was announced on Saturday by Hamid Fazeli, deputy head of the Iran Space Agency. Fazeli also said the Islamic Republic is considering into space other “animals with a similar weight as monkeys,” the Associated Press reports.
The country claims to have successfully launched a monkey into in February and returned it to Earth safely, but that claim has come into question, as the pre- and post-flight photos seem to show different monkeys, according to The Times of Israel. Tehran said the confusion was due to media using a picture of the wrong monkey in error.
In a report by the official IRNA news agency, released in September, Iran unveiled plans to potentially send into space. The same report also said a mouse and a rabbit were under consideration.
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