Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 5 /Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov/
Iran would require about 10 critical technologies to send an astronaut into space, head of Iran's Aerospace Research Institute, Mohammed Ebrahimi said, Mehr reported.
Ebrahimi added that Iran is developing a strategic plan for obtaining those technologies, so the country would be able to send a human into space by 2015.
Revealing more details of Iran's possible future launch of an astronaut into space, Ebrahimi noted that the project would send the country's first astronaut on a sub-orbital space flight first.
In the first phase of the project, according to Ebrahimi, two astronauts trained in Iran would fly to sub-orbital space at an altitude of 200 km, for 15-30 minutes, and then turn back to Earth.
Ebrahimi said that thus far only such countries as China, the U.S., and Russia have such technology, such a capsule that is made for holding a human astronaut.
On Jan. 28, Iran uccessfully launched a Kavoshgar-4 missile with a space capsule Pisgham, with a monkey on board, into space.
The launch was successful, as reaching certain speed, the satellite returned back to Earth.
The on-board computer recorded environmental, biological data, as well as images on all phases of the launch.
Previously, Iran has launched a rat, two turtles and a worm on its Kavoshgar-3 rocket in February 2010.
In 2009, the Iranian space agency launched a telecommunications satellite onboard its Safir-2 rocket.
The new space capsule and the Kavoshgar-4 rocket were both unveiled by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in early February 2011.
Ultimately, Iran has said it aims to launch a human into space by 2020, and to put an astronaut on the moon by 2025.
The Islamic republic denies military motives for its space program, but Western nations fear that Iran is moving toward developing a ballistic missile capable of deploying a nuclear warhead.
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