Did Iran Just Rocket Creatures Into Space? Sure Seems So

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/rockets-iran-kavoshgar-3-space-race-organisms-missiles?partner=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+fastcompany%2Fheadlines+%28Fast+Company+Headlines%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

by alexandros • 16 years ago

18 19 16 years ago

fastcompany.com

mixmax• 16 years ago

Guess Denmark won't be the third spacefaring nation then.

http://www.copenhagensuborbitals.com/

InclinedPlane• 16 years ago

I guess the Chinese aren't people? Or maybe you're counting from index 0?

gcb• 16 years ago

Or he was excluding the US. since everyone knows by now that their space program was done in a hollywood basement.

MikeCapone• 16 years ago

Could this be a disguised ICBM test?

felixc• 16 years ago

As the article points out, it's not even disguised -- a space-capable rocket is an ICBM, if you swap out the payload.

patio11• 16 years ago

But I thought the United States and Russia spent billions of dollars on their space programs for the Tang and cutting-edge science!

streety• 16 years ago

I can understand the use of a rat and worms as they're traditional experimental models but why use turtles?

joubert3• 16 years ago

GEB.

http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/11/recursive_gen...

mhb• 16 years ago

Gamera, FTW:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamera

GiraffeNecktie• 16 years ago

It was a turtle AND a rat. Must be Donatello and Master Splinter

goodness• 16 years ago

It's inexplicable:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B-K4NGo2HE&NR=1

joubert3• 16 years ago

What does it say on the side of the rocket (besides probably the name)?

lucifer2• 16 years ago

Mahvaareh Bar Simorgh ~= Satellite bearing Phoenix.

riahi• 16 years ago

ماهواره بر سیمرغ

To echo the sibling post, "Satellite-Bearing Phoenix" is an acceptable translation.

Literally, it is "Satellite upon Phoenix", where Simorgh is a Persian mythical bird roughly equivalent to a phoenix of western literature (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simurgh).

joubert3• 16 years ago

Is Farsi difficult to learn?

azadi• 16 years ago

No, this is not a correct translation. The correct one is "Phoenix Satellite Launch Vehicle" or "Phoenix Satellite Carrier". It's just a mockup at this point.

This was just a sounding rocket, nothing more. No ICBM test, nothing like that. Third in a series of simple sounding rockets to test telemetry and command. First launch of such a rocket since Iran put a small satellite into LEO last year.