After Iran's state news service said the nation had launched a monkey 72 miles into space, a photo of the animal surfaced online -- and it doesn't look like it's too happy.
Mahir Zeynalov, a reporter for an English-language Turkish newspaper called Today's Zaman, tweeted the photo of the monkey on Monday. The photo was originally shown on Iran's state-run news program, Press TV:
From the Associated Press:
According to a brief report on state TV, the rocket dubbed Pishgam, or Pioneer in Farsi, reached a height of 120 kilometers (72 miles). The report gave no other details on the timing or location of the launch, but said the monkey safely returned to earth.
This isn't the first time Iran has tried to send a monkey into space.
In 2011, the nation announced plans to send a monkey to space but apparently was unsuccessful, Reuters reported Monday. In 2010, Iran said it launched into space a rocket carrying a mouse and a turtle, the Associated Press reported.
Animals have been launched into space for more than 60 years.
In 1949, the United States sent a rhesus monkey into space only to see it die when its parachute malfunctioned, according to The New York Times. In 1983, the Soviet Union sent two monkeys, along with 10 pregnant rats, into space, according to NASA.
The Soviet Union also launched dogs into space as far back as the 1950s, although not all those dogs made it back to Earth alive.
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