Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani was seen tweeting about safe return of the monkey from space. The second launch of monkey into space was successful giving further boost to the program aimed at manned space flight.
The president also congratulated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic revolution and the Iranian nation on the significant achievement and wished further success for the Iranian experts.
The Islamic Republic said that they sent the first monkey into space in January. However international observers have doubts if the launch was as successful as reported after one of the photos depicted the wrong monkey.
The president’s website also did not give details of when the launch took place but said that the rocket used liquid fuel for the first time. This has made it impossible to verify the veracity of the claims. Some worry that the space program may be used as a cover for developing long-range missiles.
A former NASA engineer and author of books on human spaceflight, James E. Oberg said that Iran’s civil space advances had propaganda value, since the peaceful flights may take off global attention from the nation’s military feats and ambitions.
He said in an interview that they are like the North Koreans, who get to present their program as peaceful instead of weapons development.
