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Iran may launch a Persian cat into space
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Iran’s hunt for its next animal astronaut may turn to the distinctive and locally named Persian cat, an official said yesterday, in another possible step by the country’s ambitious aerospace program.
The report by the official IRNA news agency comes seven months after Iran claimed it launched a monkey out of earth’s atmosphere and successfully returned it home. The account, however, faced international questions after photos appeared to show different monkeys in pre- and post-launch images.
A senior space program official, Mohammad Ebrahimi, said at the time that state media mistakenly sent a photo of an alternate monkey that was not used in the February launch. He insisted just one monkey, Pishgam or Pioneer, was sent on the 20-minute flight to a height of 120 kilometers and returned safely.
In 2010, Iranian officials said it sent a mouse, a turtle and some worms on a space flight — part of the country’s goals of sending a human into space by 2018 and becoming a leading tech center for the Islamic world.
Ebrahimi said Iran’s next space capsule could carry the Persian cat, a long-haired, flat-faced breed named after Iran’s former name of Persia. He said the launch will happen by the end of Iran’s current year, which ends March 21, 2014. The report said a mouse and rabbit also are under consideration.
Ebrahimi said the next launch would be with a larger, liquid-fueled rocket. Past launches were done with solid-fueled boosters, which boast technology that can be used in long-range missiles. He said it will be launched to a 120-kilometer level, too.
He did not elaborate on the rocket change, but it could be viewed as an attempt to ease international concerns.
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