Iran plans to launch a Persian cat into space

The mission can go ahead by March next year.

TEHRAN: Iran has settled on a Persian cat as the best candidate for its latest trial for a manned space mission. It hopes to do this by 2020, state media reported on Monday. The feline would be following in the footsteps of a menagerie of dogs and monkeys who were among the early stars of the US and Soviet space programmes in the 1960.

The announcement of its planned foray into the atmosphere, aboard Iran's Kavoshgar satellite carrier prompted an outcry from animal rights groups.

Top space official Mohammad Ebrahimi told the state Irna news agency that the mission could go ahead by March next year but previous launch dates have been put off without official explanation.

Ebrahimi said the Persian cat was the favoured candidate for the mission after tests had been conducted on a number of animals. This was announced seven months after Iran had claimed that it had launched a monkey out of the earth’s atmosphere.