Iran reveals failed launch

by Zach | Oct 13, 2011 | Seradata News | 0 comments

From Flightglobal/Ascend space guru Phil Hylands:

During the Iranian month of Shahrivar (23 August – 22 September) Iran attempted to launch a Rhesus Monkey into space on a Kavoshgar-5 launch vehicle into a sub-orbital trajectory. It was to fly to an altitude of 120 kilometres for a 20 minute flight. This launch failed and therefore was not published by the Iranian authorities. The details of the failure have not been made public nor the fate of the Monkey. On October 3rd the Iranian authorities indefinitely postponed any plans to send a Monkey into space without giving any reasons.

A Turkish paper, Hurriyet Daily News, says the monkey died during the process. (H/T Atlanticwire). Recall that the American space programme killed quite a few monkeys in its early days as well. The Soviets preferred to launch dogs; some of them died, including the famed Laika, a Moscow stray that became the first Earth-born creature ever launched into orbit.

Flightglobal/Ascend’s database notes four Iranian rocket launches:

SAFIR 1 SUBORBITAL TEST FLIGHT	SUBORBITAL LAUNCH: Failed to achieve correct trajectory (Launcher related)	04/02/2008
IRANIAN DUMMY SATELLITE	LAUNCH: Failed to enter Earth orbit (Launcher Pre-sep related)	16/08/2008
OMID	LAUNCH: Satellite launched successfully	02/02/2009
RASAD 1	LAUNCH: Satellite launched successfully	15/06/2011

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