Iran is planning to send a monkey into space

Source :  Voice of Russia

Iran is planning to send a monkey into space for a ten-day period starting January 31 which marks the 34th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, head of the Iranian space agency Hamid Fazeli said in Teheran on Tuesday.

He said two monkeys were trained for the flight. At present, they are in quarantine. A launch of a monkey will be the first stage of a manned flight which will be carried out by Iran in 5-8 years, Fazeli said.

Since 2009, Iran has launched three satellites and a capsule carrying a rat, turtles and worms. An attempt to launch a monkey into space ended in failure in 2011.