Iran announced yesterday that they had launched a monkey into space. The Defense Ministry said the space launch of the monkey coincided “with the days of” the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, which was last week’
The small grey monkey was pictured strapped into a padded seat and being loaded into the Kavoshgar rocket dubbed “Pishgam” (Pioneer) which on state media said reached a height of more than 120 km (75 miles), IRNA said.
“This shipment returned safely to Earth with the anticipated speed along with the live organism,” Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi told the semi-official Fars news agency. “The launch of Kavoshgar and its retrieval is the first step towards sending humans into space in the next phase.”
Large arms shipment intercepted off Yemen, Iran eyed as source
WASHINGTON – Yemeni forces intercepted a ship on January 23 carrying a large cache of weapons – including surface-to-air missiles – that U.S. officials suspect were being smuggled from Iran and destined for Yemeni insurgents, officials said on Monday.