Rattlesnake Ridge      

 
      BFF
“The gallop of your heart
The worlds were apart
Panic, panic
Every symbol misplaced
Every monkey in space
Panic, panic…” The Stills

“Iran plans to send a live monkey into space in the summer, the country’s top space official said after the launch of the Rassad-1 satellite, state television reported on its website on Thursday. “The Kavoshgar-5 rocket will be launched during the month of Mordad (July 23 to August 23) with a 285-kilogramme capsule carrying a monkey to an altitude of 120 kilometres (74 miles),” said Hamid Fazeli, head of Iran’s Space Organisation. In February, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled a space capsule designed to carry a live monkey into space, along with four new prototypes of home-built satellites the country hopes to launch before March 2012. At the time, Fazeli touted the launch of a large animal into space as the first step towards sending a man into space, which Tehran says is scheduled for 2020. Iran sent small animals into space — a rat, turtles and worms — aboard its Kavoshgar-3 rocket in 2010…….”

The Iranians are steadily inching their way toward a manned space flight. Last year they sent a gaggle of varmints (rat, turtle, worms) into space. This summer they’ll be sending their and our, and Tarzan’s and Cheeta’s, closest relative. They have promised or threatened, depending on one’s point of view, to send a man at the end of the decade. It is not clear now who they will send, but there are several people who will be out of jobs and available long before 2020. Mr. Ahmadinejad may want to crown his public career with a blast into space. Some mullah or another may want the honor. They may decide to send a team: a civilian and a mullah. They may send a woman, who does not qualify as either a civilian or a mullah. They may send the head of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), or they may send a particularly annoying opposition leader. The possibilities are intriguing.
Cheers
mhg



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