1. Iran Reports Lofting Monkey Into Space, Calling It Prelude
to Human Flight – New York Times
Western experts said the brief experiment appeared to have few if any immediate military
implications, as it might have if Iran had launched a much larger vehicle that could fly high and
fast enough to put a major payload into orbit.
“It doesn’t demonstrate any militarily significant technology,” said Jonathan McDowell, a
Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity. “This is a tiny old rocket,
and what’s on top is useful only for doing astronaut stuff.”
Rather, he and other experts said, the exercise seemed to represent a small but significant step
in Iran’s stated goal of developing rockets big and advanced enough to send human astronauts
into space — a goal Tehran has repeated publicly for more than a year.
Charles P. Vick, an expert on Iranian rockets at a private research group, GlobalSecurity.org, in
Alexandria, Va., said that the flight, if truly successful, showed that Iran was slowly mastering
the technology of life support.
“It’s significant in that it shows progress toward manned spaceflight,” he said in an interview.
But Mr. Vick urged caution about the Iranian claims, noting that news media reports suggested
that Iran in 2011 had tried and failed to put a monkey into space.
“I think they messed up,” he said of the reported failure, conceding that other Western experts
disagreed on whether Iran had in fact tried to launch a monkey earlier.
James E. Oberg, a former NASA engineer and author of a dozen books on human spaceflight,
said Iran’s civil space advances also had propaganda value, since the peaceful flights could
take global attention off the nation’s military feats and ambitions.
“To a large degree, it’s a fig leaf,” he said in an interview. “Like the North Koreans, they get to
present their program as peaceful when lots of it has to do with weapons development.”
For decades, space powers have lofted ants, spiders, mice, rats, frogs, snails, fish, turtles,
guinea pigs, cats, dogs, monkeys and chimpanzees as cover stories for military programs and
as high-flying experiments meant to pave the way for sending humans into orbit. Iran in recent
years has said it has launched a mouse, a turtle and a number of worms.
“It’s a question of testing life-support reliability for people,” Mr. Oberg said. “Things in zero
gravity don’t always behave like they do in test chambers on earth. It’s prudent to look for
things you might have overlooked.”
On the military side, Iran has tested and fielded a growing arsenal of powerful missiles that now
threaten Israel and limited parts of Europe. In 2009 and 2011, it successfully put satellites into
orbit. Aerospace experts say the orbital steps can help Iran develop long-range missiles that
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2. one day might target the United States.
Iran is also pursuing a program to enrich uranium, which can fuel reactors or nuclear warheads
atop missiles. For many years, Western powers have failed to persuade Iran to abandon the
sprawling effort, which they see as aimed at making nuclear arms. Iran has denied that charge
and insists its goals are entirely peaceful.
On Monday, Iran’s Press TV, a state-run broadcaster, said the monkey had been launched in a
space capsule code named Pishgam, or Pioneer. It quoted the director of the Iran Space
Agency, Hamid Fazeli, as saying this month that “because of biological similarities between
humans and monkeys, the latter were selected for the space mission.” He also predicted that
Iran would send a human into space within the “next five to eight years.”
Western space experts could give no confirmation of the report, which Press TV called evidence
of “yet another” Iranian achievement in launching animals into space.
The state news agency, IRNA, said the monkey rode on a Kavoshgar rocket that reached an
altitude of 75 miles and “returned its shipment intact,” Reuters reported. The monkey survived,
Press TV said. The timing of the reported launching was unclear — either on Monday or within
the past few days.
The report emerged as Western officials in Brussels said they had offered Iran new dates in
February to resume the long-running and inconclusive nuclear talks, Reuters reported. Iranian
officials reportedly turned down a request for a meeting in Istanbul at the end of January.
Mr. Vick of GlobalSecurity.org said Iran’s program for human spaceflight was apparently
making progress not only in launching animals into space but in developing large new rockets
and launching facilities.
This month, he said, Iran unveiled information about a space capsule meant to hold human
astronauts. “It’s based on Chinese technology,” Mr. Vick said, adding that Iran had nearly
completed a large new launching pad big enough for powerful rockets that could loft warheads,
satellites or people into space.
“It’s nearly done,” Mr. Vick said of the launching facility. “It’s for the big new launcher they’re
building.”
Alan Cowell contributed reporting from London.
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3. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/world/middleeast/iran-says-it-sent-monkey-into-space.html
Waddywood.com Iran Reports Lofting Monkey Into Space, Calling It Prelude to Human Flight –
New York Times
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