announced that it fired a powerful rocket loaded with several live
animals into space and unveiled a handful of other space technologies
Wednesday, ahead of a nationalist holiday and amid heightened
international concerns about
The long-awaited launch of the Kavoshgar-3 satellite carrier and the unveiling of the other technologies coincided with
State television aired footage of the flying
Kavoshgar-3. Photos posted to news Web sites showed a rat strapped into
a space pod. Reports said two turtles and worms were also aboard.
Officials said it was the first time
“These miraculous satellite projects are, in fact, key to the connection between God and mankind,” President
He predicted that
would in the future dispatch astronauts beyond Earth’s orbit and was
“two steps away from reaching a point of no return” in its space
program, which has worried the U.S. and other nations in the West
because of its potential to bolster
seven projects Wednesday, including a satellite image processing
center, a 3-D laboratory and plans for the four-engine, liquid-fuel
Simorgh satellite carrier, which can transport a 220-pound object up to
300 miles above Earth, according to Iranian news outlets.
Three satellites unveiled were the solar-powered
Tolou, which can take photographs and transmit them back to Earth; the
Mesbah-II, which can provide telecommunications to remote areas; and
the Navid, an imaging satellite designed by students.
first satellite, the Omid, into orbit last year amid patriotic fervor
in the run-up to the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. But
the discord unleashed after Ahmadinejad’s disputed
Authorities are trying hard to bolster the nation’s spirits ahead of the
—
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