In a Saturday message, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani hailed the mission to send the monkey, called “Fargam” or Auspicious, into space aboard an indigenous bio-capsule as a success.

He praised the country’s scientists for their successful attempt to send the monkey into space and return the live simian back to earth safely, noting that it was the first time that a carrier running on liquid fuel carried out such a mission.

On January 28, the Islamic Republic of Iran sent a monkey into space aboard an indigenous bio-capsule, code-named Pishgam (Pioneer), as a prelude to sending humans on space missions.

Also in 2010, Iran successfully sent a rat, turtle and worms into space.

At the time, the attempts had been touted as the first step towards sending a man into space, which Tehran says is scheduled for 2020.

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