Middle East News
Iran launches "life capsule" into orbit
Mar 17, 2011, 7:25 GMT
Tehran - Iran has launched its first 'life-capsule' into orbit, official news agency IRNA reported Thursday.
The test capsule was carried out by the Kavoshgar-4 carrier-rocket on March 15, the report said adding that the test was a prologue for sending capsules with animals into the space in the future.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last month that Iran would launch several new locally-built satellites within the next 12 months.
Iran launched its first satellite into orbit in February 2009. The following year, it unveiled three new communications satellites, plus a domestically produced carrier, Simorq, which can put a 100-kilogram satellite into orbit.
Tehran has rejected Western charges that its space projects have military aims and accuses the West of trying to distort Iran's scientific achievements as aggression.
The United States and Israel said the same technology could be used for ballistic missiles, but Iran described the project as an 'ultra-modern scientific achievement.'
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