pemstrongThe New York Times/strong/embr /
By WILLIAM J. BROAD /p
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img src=”/img/animals/monkey.jpg” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”276″ /div class=”caption”A still image from a video released on Monday by Press TV, Iran’s state-run satellite broadcaster, shows the monkey it said Iran launched into space.
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pIranian state television said Monday that the nation had put a monkey into space “as a prelude to sending humans.” The successful flight involved a relatively small rocket that went straight up and down, according to the state-sponsored news report, and the monkey survived the flight. /p
pWestern experts said the brief experiment appeared to have few if any immediate military implications, as it might have if Iran had launched a much larger vehicle that could fly high and fast enough to put a major payload into orbit. /p
p”It doesn’t demonstrate any militarily significant technology,” said Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity. “This is a tiny old rocket, and what’s on top is useful only for doing astronaut stuff.” /p
pa href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/world/middleeast/iran-says-it-sent-monkey-into-space.html?_r=1″Read the full article online at theem New York Times/em/a/p