Iran sends monkey on suborbital flight

[PeZook]

Iran Reports Lofting Monkey Into Space, Calling It Prelude to Human Flight
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: January 28, 2013

Iranian state television said Monday that the nation had put a monkey into space “as a prelude to sending humans.” The successful flight involved a relatively small rocket that went straight up and down, according to the state-sponsored news report, and the monkey survived the flight.
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Reuters Tv/Reuters

A still image from a video released on Monday by Press TV, Iran's state-run satellite broadcaster, shows the monkey it said Iran launched into space.

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 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.”

I am not Iran's greatest fan, but this is an advance of pure SCIENCE!, and a small step towards another nation gaining manned spaceflight capability, which can only be awesome.

[SirNitram]

Spam in a can returns!

[PeZook]

Now, to be perfectly honest, they could've tried to fake it, but with space achievements that basically doesn't happen - they're too easy to verify by other nations with the same capability.

[LaCroix]

I tend to believe that it was a true experiment. I don't think an ICBM could be dialled down to man-rated parameters easily.
(Depending on the veracity of the claim the monkey survived - but I could be wrong on my assumtion, just as well.)

[PeZook]

I tend to believe that it was a true experiment. I don't think an ICBM could be dialled down to man-rated parameters easily.
(Depending on the veracity of the claim the monkey survived - but I could be wrong on my assumtion, just as well.)

All of the first manned rockets were actually converted ICBMs, so it's just a question of what do you consider "man-rated". NASA requirements nowadays are very stringent, but that wasn't always the case

[Grumman]

Iranian state television said Monday that the nation had put a monkey into space “as a prelude to sending humans.” The successful flight involved a relatively small rocket that went straight up and down, according to the state-sponsored news report, and the monkey survived the flight.

Makes sense - I can only imagine how hard it would be for Iran to get their monkey back if America got to it first.

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.

Uh huh. And hiding your nation's military ambitions behind the shroud of counter-terrorism is so much better?

[Ultonius]

If the monkey did survive, that's quite an achievement in itself, considering that a large number of American launches involving monkeys resulted in their deaths, mostly from parachute failures or explosions.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

Uh huh. And hiding your nation's military ambitions behind the shroud of counter-terrorism is so much better?

It's one of the acceptable forms of ad hominem: "That's rich, coming from an American."

[Ziggy Stardust]

Uh huh. And hiding your nation's military ambitions behind the shroud of counter-terrorism is so much better?

How big of a moron do you have to be to shit out this delightful strawman? You realize this logic is basically the same as screeching at David Attenborough about British imperialism while he is talking about the mating habits of Emperor penguins, right?

[Grumman]

Uh huh. And hiding your nation's military ambitions behind the shroud of counter-terrorism is so much better?

How big of a moron do you have to be to shit out this delightful strawman? You realize this logic is basically the same as screeching at David Attenborough about British imperialism while he is talking about the mating habits of Emperor penguins, right?

Did you read the article? Did you read the part where even an achievement that has "few if any immediate military implications" is twisted into fearmongering on the grounds that peaceful achievements might distract us from Iran's warlike nature?

[Dominarch's Hope]

Iranian state television said Monday that the nation had put a monkey into space “as a prelude to sending humans.” The successful flight involved a relatively small rocket that went straight up and down, according to the state-sponsored news report, and the monkey survived the flight.

Makes sense - I can only imagine how hard it would be for Iran to get their monkey back if America got to it first.

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.

Uh huh. And hiding your nation's military ambitions behind the shroud of counter-terrorism is so much better?

Im going to get real with you. We have the second largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world and we have the most power navy in the world by an insane margin.

What we do in regards to reasearch and development and procurement is perfectly legitimate. Same way that Britain having crap tons of Anthrax was perfectly legitimate. Because you can do nothing to stop us.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Did you read the article? Did you read the part where even an achievement that has "few if any immediate military implications" is twisted into fearmongering on the grounds that peaceful achievements might distract us from Iran's warlike nature?

You posted your comment specifically in response to a vague comment by an author on the subject of human spaceflight. Specifically, this:

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.

If you really think this amounts to "fearmongering," you are a moron. If there is some other section of the article you interpret as fearmongering, feel free to quote it.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

What we do in regards to reasearch and development and procurement is perfectly legitimate. Same way that Britain having crap tons of Anthrax was perfectly legitimate. Because you can do nothing to stop us.

Oh look, wanking to his county's nukes. Get back to the fields, peasant.

[Stark]

Im going to get real with you. We have the second largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world and we have the most power navy in the world by an insane margin.

What we do in regards to reasearch and development and procurement is perfectly legitimate. Same way that Britain having crap tons of Anthrax was perfectly legitimate. Because you can do nothing to stop us.

If only it didn't just fuel your cowardice, I guess.

[Flagg]

Im going to get real with you. We have the second largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world and we have the most power navy in the world by an insane margin.

What we do in regards to reasearch and development and procurement is perfectly legitimate. Same way that Britain having crap tons of Anthrax was perfectly legitimate. Because you can do nothing to stop us.

If only it didn't just fuel your cowardice, I guess.

Micropenis Americanus. I have made an official diagnosis.

[Sea Skimmer]

This takes the technology of the V-2 rocket, which Iran far surpassed the day it bought its first SCUD-B from North Korea. V-2 is how the US got its first monkey past the 100km mark. The USSR didn't bother with monkeys early on, but the first space dog rode an R-2 rocket which was also an improved V-2. The difficult part is ensuring the animal survives the landing, and by today's standards that's easy enough.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Uh huh. And hiding your nation's military ambitions behind the shroud of counter-terrorism is so much better?

How big of a moron do you have to be to shit out this delightful strawman? You realize this logic is basically the same as screeching at David Attenborough about British imperialism while he is talking about the mating habits of Emperor penguins, right?

Did you read the article? Did you read the part where even an achievement that has "few if any immediate military implications" is twisted into fearmongering on the grounds that peaceful achievements might distract us from Iran's warlike nature?

I am sorry, but yes. Spaceflight has propaganda applications. Soviet spaceflight did, so did ours and everyone else's. It is a national achievement, a mark of pride. A way for their population to stick their thumbs in their belts and be like "Oh yeah, we finally made it into space with the power of our !Science! and joined the modern world.", and a way for them to tell all the other nations of the world the same thing. Need I remind you as well that the US was doing some pretty rancid shit when we went into space and in doing so DID for a time distract from said rancid shit.

That is a simple fact. Acknowledging it is not fear-mongering.

[Lolpah]

Im going to get real with you. We have the second largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world and we have the most power navy in the world by an insane margin.

What we do in regards to reasearch and development and procurement is perfectly legitimate. Same way that Britain having crap tons of Anthrax was perfectly legitimate. Because you can do nothing to stop us.

If only it didn't just fuel your cowardice, I guess.

Micropenis Americanus. I have made an official diagnosis.

Considering his signature, I'm willing to bet that "perfectly legitimate" was sarcastic.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

Considering his signature, I'm willing to bet that "perfectly legitimate" was sarcastic.

I'm willing to bet he actually means it, and doesn't understand that "Murrica" is supposed to be sarcastic. Why don't we let him say it himself, though?

Also, what name is this? A guy with my nick shouldn't throw stones, but at least I don't have a "lol" in it.