Article Posted on : - Jul 11, 2011

TEHRAN (BNS): Iran will launch its indigenously-built Kavoshgar 5 satellite carrying a living animal into space in the coming days, the country’s space agency chief has said.

“Kavoshgar 5, which is carrying a living creature, will be sent 120 kilometers (74.56 miles) into space below the orbit in July-August,” chief of Iran’s Space Agency (ISA) Hamid Fazeli was quoted as saying by the Press TV.

“Now five monkeys are being trained so that they can (learn to) withstand the physical pressures produced by the orbital pace of the explorer, sound, vibration and other elements at the time of launching,” the official said.

The Kavoshgar 5 (Explorer 5) is the successor of Kavoshgar-4 rocket that was launched in March this year.

Iran had planned to launch Kavoshgar-4 carrying a test capsule designed to house an animal, but the rocket was launched without any living creature.

In February 2010, Iran launched a capsule carrying live turtles, rats and worms aboard the Kavoshgar 3 rocket in what was its first experiment to send living creatures into space.

The Islamic Republic began its ambitious space programme with the launch of its first indigenously-built satellite ‘Omid’ (Hope) using a domestic rocket in February, 2009. Last month, the country placed in orbit its second indigenous satellite, Rasad 1 (Observation 1).