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Iran's Space Program Isn't Monkeying Around

Iranian news outlets say this grey-tufted monkey rocketed into space Monday and returned to Earth successfully.

The Islamic Republic of Iran says it successfully sent a monkey into space on Monday and retrieved the animal alive. If true, the mission represents a major step towards the nation putting human astronauts into orbit.

The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA, said in a statement that the successful launch of and retrieval of the satellite was “a prelude to sending humans into space.” Other reports from state-run media say the monkey traveled on a Kavoshgar rocket in a space capsule code named Pishgam (“Pioneer”) to an altitude of 120 kilometers, and was retrieved alive after returning to earth.

No outside agencies have yet confirmed the nation’s claims. But Iranian officials have been public about their desire to put a human into space before the end of the decade.

Launching animals into space may not sound like a great technological feat, but it’s an important step in human spaceflight programs. The USSR began sending dogs into space in 1951, and a Russian mutt named Laika became the first (non-microbial) Earth-born animal to enter orbit on aboard Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957. On May 28, 1959 a rhesus monkey named Able and a squirrel monkey named Miss Baker blasted off on an American Jupiter missile and became the first primates to successfully travel into space and return to Earth alive. Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet pilot, became the first human to travel into outer space a few years later, on April 12, 1961.

Iran only established its space program in 2004, and the country has been making slow but steady progress since; the nation launched its first satellite in 2009; and put a rodent, two turtles, and several worms into sub-orbital space in 2010.




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  • Michael Noer Michael Noer, Forbes Staff 1 year ago

    Better headline: “Iranian Science Now at 1959 Level.”

  • David M. Ewalt David M. Ewalt, Contributor 1 year ago

    How about “Has America Fallen Behind In The Simian Space Race?”

  • procivic procivic 1 year ago

    It’s appropriate that the author refers to the Soviet Union’s space achievements because one is reminded that U.S. official and media propaganda generally view Iran’s scientific progress as laughably primitive or alarmingly threatening. Americans forget that the initial responses to Sputnik were dismal failures and it was only Wernher von Braun’s team using German V2 technology that put up the first U.S. satellite after the Navy’s much touted Vanguard rocket spluttered on the concrete.