Monkey Returned From Space To Earth Safely

Iran claims a second monkey it has sent into space has survived - nearly a year after questions were asked over an earlier attempt.

State TV said the monkey had travelled in a rocket dubbed Pajohesh, or Research in Farsi, which was the country's first craft to use liquid fuel.
It said the monkey, named Fargam or Auspicious, reached a height of 72 miles (120km) before being returned to Earth safely.

President Hassan Rouhani congratulated the scientists involved in the mission, in a message carried by Iran's official IRNA news agency.
"The launch of Pajohesh is another long step getting the Islamic Republic of Iran closer to sending a man into space," the official IRNA news agency said.

Pre-recorded footage, shown on state TV, showed the rocket blasting off and then showed the monkey, strapped snugly into a seat, staring at people clapping to celebrate its safe return.
The report said Fargam's capsule parachuted safely to Earth after detaching from the rocket in a mission that lasted 15 minutes.

In January, Iran said it had successfully brought a live monkey back to Earth from orbit.
But the experiment's success was disputed, when a different monkey was presented to the media after the landing.
An earlier attempt had failed in September 2011.

Doubts were cast on Iran's last claim after it presented a different monkey

Iran's space programme has prompted concern among Western governments which fear Tehran is experimenting in an attempt to master the technology required to deliver a nuclear warhead.
But for Iranians, the country's aerospace programme is a source of national pride.
Iran is keen to show itself as a technological hub for Islamic and developing countries.

In the January mission, one of two official packages of photos depicted the wrong monkey, causing some international observers to wonder whether the monkey had died in space or that the space flight had in fact failed.
But Iranian officials later said one set of pictures showed an archive photo of an alternative monkey, which was not used.
They said three to five monkeys are simultaneously trained for such a flight but only one is chosen.

The Islamic Republic has not revealed where the rocket launch took place, but it has a major satellite launch complex near Semnan, about 125 miles (200km) east of Tehran.
Analysts say putting a monkey into space without putting it into orbit is similar to the achievements of the superpowers during the late 1950s.