The last paragraph was added (the first version was posted at 17:16)
At present, the preparatory work is being held to launch the artificial satellite Kavoshgar 4. It will send living organisms into the orbit, the head of Iran's Space Agency Hamid Fazeli was quoted by the Iranian news agency İSNA as saying.
"We have already begun the operations to send a cosmonaut into orbit. The work was started to create a national laboratory, space station and centre," Fazeli said.
"Recently we have sent living organisms into space. According to the Iranian Space Agency's program, the first astronaut should have been sent into space in 2024, but the state prematurely was able to implement some programs, and Iran's first astronaut will fly to space in 2017," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in August 2010.
He said that big changes will occur in global diplomacy by sending the first Iranian astronaut into space.
Kavoshgar 4 will send monkeys into the orbit. They are currently prepared for this purpose, İSNA news agency reported. Earlier, mice and frogs were sent to the orbit.