Iran Launches Monkey into Space: A Matter of Serious Concern?

The Islamic Republic of Iran successfully launched a monkey into space on a suborbital flight and it has made a safe return landing on Earth, reports Press TV.

The primate was launched Monday in a Kavoshgar rocket capsule named Pishgam (Pioneer) to an altitude of 120 kilometers. The launch was a step toward Tehran's goal of a manned space flight.  Other details like time and launch destination were not revealed, except that the capsule made a safe return and the monkey was alive after its suborbital experience.

According to the Bloomberg Businessweek, the monkey was the not the first organism sent to space by the Iran Space Agency. Prior to this, they had sent a rat, turtles and worms aboard a Kavoshgar-3 rocket. Even in 2011 they had launched a monkey, but unfortunately the animal could not withstand the suborbital experience and eventually died.

The reason for this successful launch is still under covers, but Iran's space program defines this is as 'yet another achievement'.

According to the Iranian Space agency director Hamid Fazeli, the reason a monkey was chosen to be sent into space is because its physiology is very similar to humans. In this mission, a monkey was used to test life support systems and flight conditions, reports Press TV.

While Iranian authorities were celebrating its launch, there were a few others who were not astonished with the launch.

"Strategically, no new military or strategic capability has been established or demonstrated by Iran with this launch. This is at least Iran's second attempt, though the first one was not acknowledged publicly, so I assume the inaugural launch attempt did not go well. Nonetheless, Iran has an ambitious space exploration programme that includes the goal of placing a human in space in the next five or so years and a human-inhabited orbital capsule by the end of the decade," Michael Elleman, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) was quoted as saying in the Guardian.

The successful launch is a serious concern for the U.S. and its allies, as they predict that the technology from this space program can be used to develop long missiles that could be armed with nuclear warheads.

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