Iran successfully launched what’s being described as an “indigenous bio-capsule” as a part of its ambition to launch astronauts into orbit by the tip of 2029, in response to a senior official.
The launch took place on Wednesday (Dec. 6) and saw the capsule reach a height of 80 miles (130 km), in response to Iran’s Mehr News Agency. The capsule weighed 1,100 lbs (500 kg) and was launched atop certainly one of the nation’s Salman solid-propellant rockets.
Al Jazeera reports there have been unknown animals aboard, but there is no such thing as a official confirmation yet of what they may have been. No matter any animal occupants, the Iranian Space Agency says the capsule will help the nation put its own astronauts into space.
“According to the implementation of the ten-year document of the country’s space industry, the ‘Life in Space’ program has been revived and shortly, God willing, the suborbital tests of the brand new generation ‘bio-capsule’ can be completely Iranian,” the Jerusalem Post reported Iranian Communication Minister Eisa Zarepour as saying on Dec. 4.
Related: Iran launches third military satellite to orbit
Hossein Dalirian, a spokesperson for Iran’s space agency, shared a video of the launch on X (formerly Twitter).
پرتاب کپسول زیستی از زاویهای جدید ✌🇮🇷 pic.twitter.com/xskDJ3sLtLDecember 6, 2023
Only three countries — Russia, america and China — have independent human spaceflight capabilities. India is working on becoming the fourth in the following few years with its Gaganyaan project.
Iran is currently only able to launching small satellites to low Earth orbit. It will must develop much larger and more reliable launch vehicles, a crew capsule and life support systems, reentry technology requiring material breakthroughs, parachute systems and more.
Iran will face difficulties accessing technologies being under US sanctions however the country recently increased its space cooperation with Russia, signing deals for brand spanking new satellites. The previous Soviet Union became the primary country to launch a human into space in 1961 with Vostok 1.
Russia has been largely isolated since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and has lost civil and business space partners.
Iran has previously claimed it has sent monkeys to space on suborbital flights. These claims have been disputed.