Iranian Animals Launched into Space

Animals Launched into Space by Iran

Iran fired a research rocket into space today (Wednesday 3rd), 'manned' by two turtles, some worms and a mouse.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared the successful launch as a victory for Iran and proof of its technological expertise.

The Kavoshgar-3 rocket – which translates as Explorer-3 in Farsi - marked the country's National Day of Space Technology.

Defence minister general Ahmad Vahidi did not disclose what was expected from sending the menagerie into space.

Though the placing of the animals in the rocket was shown on television, it is unknown where and when exactly the launch took place.

The experiments are in a long tradition of using animals for space research.

Monkeys are generally the most popular animals to send into space, because of their genetic similarity to humans.

However, a huge variety of animals and insects have experienced zero-gravity since the first missions in the 1950s.

In 2003, the last journey by the Columbia shuttle carried silkworms, carpenter bees, harvester ants and Japanese killifish.

It had previously taken up rats, newts, fruit flies, snails, oyster toadfish, sea urchins, swordtail fish and stick insect eggs.