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Iran To Send Second Monkey Into Space - Report

RIA Novosti

20:41 13/10/2013

MOSCOW, October 13 (RIA Novosti) – Iranian scientists are planning to send a second monkey into space, state-funded Press TV cited the deputy head of the country's space agency as saying.

Press TV cited the deputy head of the Iranian Space Agency as saying that a second primate could be sent into space before the end of next month.

In January, Iran's Press TV reported that a primate had been successfully launched into space.

However other media outlets, such as Britain's The Telegraph, questioned that the launch had been a success, suggesting that the monkey paraded before the public as the country's first successful simian spaceman looked noticeably different from the one shown in pre-launch footage.

Iranian officials responded to these reports, explaining that some footage shown was archive, but stressing that a monkey had been sent into space successfully, and that the voyage had not had a detrimental effect on its health.

Iran's space agency has said that launching a monkey into space is part of ongoing preliminary work ahead of a manned space mission – which they hope to carry out within the next five to eight years.