Iran to send first living organism into space

A ranking Iranian space official has announced that Iran would send the first living organism to space within the next couple of months. Chairman of the Iranin Space Agency (ISA) Hamid Fadeli said in a sttement carried by the Iranian Fars News Agency (FNA) on Thursday that such a project, favoured and encourged by the Iranian president, aims to planning to send a small monkey into space, to be the first step on the way for space . Elaborating Fadeli said after sending the first model in 1988 , the Iranian Space experts were working on carrying out the so- called capsule and launching it last winter. After landing on earth , the related mistakes were tackled and problems removed. The ISA chairman stressed that after the success achieved so far , Iran would score a great shot when it sends a human being into space at an altitude varying between 250 to 300 kilometers above the surface of the earth. He went on to say that after getting the required results, the iranian scientists will launch another operation to land human beings into space. It is worth to mention that Iran expressed for the first time its intention to send a human into space during the summit of Soviet and Iranian Presidents at June 21, 1990. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev reached an agreement in principle with then-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to make joint Soviet-Iranian manned flights to Mir space station but this agreement was never realized after the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 2011 Iran launched a number of laboratories for testing "space structures and systems" in line with its progressing space program. The laboratory includes ten labs to "reinforce infrastructures of Iran''s space industry" and help improve the abilities of human resources.(QNA) MD