Iran: We Launched a Monkey Into Space

News may fuel US rocket concerns
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 28, 2013 7:43 AM CST
Iran: We Launched a Monkey Into Space
FILE - In this June 2, 2012 photo, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures as he delivers a speech on the eve of the 23rd death anniversary of late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, at his mausoleum just outside Tehran, Iran. Lawmakers are working on a set of new and unprecedented Iran...   (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

Somewhere Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might be trying on his spacesuit, because Iran is inching closer to sending a person into space—and perhaps to developing long-range missiles, if US concerns prove accurate. Iranian state TV today said that the country launched a monkey into space and it came home safe and sound, the AP reports. The monkey reportedly went 72 miles in the air in an Explorer rocket. Iran says it had sent some smaller animals into space in 2010, and it hopes a human trip isn't far away. (More Iran stories.)

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