Iran launches new rocket into space

TEHRAN – Iran announced yesterday it has successfully launched a three metre- foot-long research rocket carrying a mouse, two turtles and worms into space – a feat President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said showed Iran could defeat the West in the battle of technology.

The launch of the Kavoshgar-3, which means Explorer-3 in Farsi, was announced by Defence Minister General Ahmad Vahidi as part of Iran’s ambitious space programme. It comes a year after Iran sent its first domestically made telecommunications satellite into orbit.The programme has worried Western powers who fear the same technology used to launch satellites and research capsules could also deliver warheads.Iranian state television broadcast images yesterday of officials putting a mouse, two turtles and about a dozen creatures that looked like worms inside a capsule in the rocket before it blast off.Vahidi gave no details on the research and the report did not disclose when or where the launch took place.The rocket is the third in a series bearing the same name. Iran reported launching Kavoshgar-1, or Explorer-1, in February 2008. The first section of the rocket detached after 90 seconds and returned to earth with the help of a parachute. A second segment entered space for about five minutes, while the final section was sent toward orbit to collect data.Later in 2008, a rocket entitled Kavoshgar-2, or Explorer-2, made it to the lower reaches of space and returned to earth 40 minutes later on a parachute. No details about that launch were reported.Ahmadinejad praised the latest launch and said greater events would come in the future.’The scientific arena is where we could defeat the (West’s) domination,’ Ahmadinejad said in remarks broadcast live on state TV. He said the launch is a ‘very big event. This is the first presence of animals in space launched by Iran. It’s the start of bigger achievements’ to come.Also yesterday, Ahmadinejad unveiled a new domestically built light booster rocket, named Simorgh, as well as three Iranian-built satellites – Mesbah-2, Tolo and Navid-e-Elm-o-Sanat – all part of Iran’s observing the National Day of Space Technology.Officials said the Simorgh rocket can carry a satellite weighing 100 kilograms up to 500 kilometres above the Earth.The West is concerned Iran is trying to build an atomic weapon but Tehran denies the charge and says it’s nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes, such as electricity production. – Nampa-AP