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Iran successfully launches domestically-built bio capsule into space

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
6 Dec 2023 14:58
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Iran's homegrown Salman launcher has delivered the 500 kg bio capsule to its intended destination.

The Slaman launcher carrying a 500 kg bio capsule is prepared for the next change, in Iran, on December 6, 2023. (Mehr News Agency)

Iran successfully launched its newest biological capsule via its domestically-built Salman launcher on Wednesday morning.

The launch comes in line with the realization of the plan to send humans into space.

The 500 kg capsule went up 130 km from the Earth's surface, as the country continues to make progress in its civilian space program. The capsule was commissioned by the Iran Space Agency and built by the Aerospace Research Institute of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology.

The Salman launcher used to propel the capsule was built by Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO), belonging to the Iranian Ministry of Defense.

The country's first bio-capsule containing living organisms was launched into space in February 2010, using a Kavoshgar carrier.

🇮🇷 Iran has successfully launched a new biocapsule outside the Earth's atmosphere pic.twitter.com/K8qYpAnX5Y
— PalestineS Monitor (@PalestinMonitor) December 6, 2023

Previously, Iran revealed plans to launch five new satellites into space by the end of the Iranian calendar year, March 20, 2024. A report by Tasnim news agency quoted Iranian Communications Minister Eisa Zarepour, saying, "We [Iran] will have two satellite launches by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), two launches by the defense ministry, and one launch of a foreign satellite."

In this context, it was also announced that specialists at an Iranian research center had manufactured a bio-capsule, which was launched on Wednesday.

Back in October, Zarepour said the country would conduct the first tests of a bio-capsule designed to send astronauts into space in the upcoming months, adding that Iran was working to send a man into space in the next five years.

The month before, he said the IRGC air force had succeeded in launching the third military satellite Noor-3 into orbit. It was later revealed that Iran plans to launch two more satellites into orbit by the end of March 2024.