Turtles blasted into space aboard Iranian rocket
A pair of turtles, a rat and some worms have been launched into space aboard an Iranian rocket, according to Iranian news agencies.
Scientists were studying the creatures inside their biological capsule via a live video transmission to see how they coped with leaving the earth’s atmosphere and entering space, the Iranian Aerospace Organization said. Pictures showed the rat, called Hemlz 1, strapped into the tiny capsule prior to the launch.
The Fars news agency said later Wednesday that the animals had returned to Earth and were being studied by scientists.
The Kavoshgar-3, or Explorer-3 rocket, was launched Wednesday to commemorate this month’s anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew Iran’s monarchy.
Rodents and worms and other species including dogs and monkeys were regular space travellers during the Cold War “space race” of the 1950s and 1960s, which began when Albert II, a rhesus monkey, was blasted into space aboard a V2 rocket launched by the United States.
The turtles are the first of their species to boldly go beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, although a Soviet Union-launched tortoise holds the record for the longest space flight by an animal, spending more than 90 days in orbit in 1976.