Iran plans to send monkey into space in near future

Iran Space Agency (ISA) director Hamid Fazeli announced on Wednesday that ISA plans to send a live monkey into space aboard a rocket after the fasting month of Ramadan which ends on August 18.
The rocket, called Kavoshgar-5 (explorer-5), contains a biological capsule in which a rhesus monkey will be placed, Tehran Times reported.

Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced on June 2 that Iran is finishing construction of a new space center that will allow it to soon launch more domestically made satellites into orbit.