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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