Pishgam (, "pioneer") is an Iranian 300-kilogramme space capsule and associated rocket ( Kavoshgar-Pishgam "Explorer-Pioneer"), which launched containing

rhesus monkey The rhesus macaque (''Macaca mulatta''), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally brown or g ...

and is part of a series of Iranian rocket launches containing biological cargo intended as precursors to

human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...

Kavoshgar programme

The sounding rocket plus return capsule combination are capable of undertaking a twenty-minute flight and reach a height of 120 km. This is a sub-orbital flight not similar to the Safir rocket which launched

Omid Omid (, meaning "Hope") was Iran's first domestically made satellite. Omid was a data-processing satellite for research and telecommunications; Iran's state television reported that it was successfully launched on 2 February 2009. After being lau ...

, a domestically-built data-processing satellite into low Earth orbit. The objective is to prepare for crewed space flight after 2020, by sending monkeys into space. The Iranian Space Agency said before the first launch that they had five adolescent rhesus monkeys from South East Asia. The monkey's health is checked before launch and the launch is intended to demonstrate that the life support systems work and that the monkey will land in good health.

Kavoshgar-3

On February 3, 2010, ISA launched a Kavoshgar-3 (Explorer-3) rocket with one rodent, two turtles, and several worms into sub-orbital space and returned them to Earth alive. The rocket was enabled to transfer electronic data and live footage back to Earth. The

Aerospace Research Institute The Aerospace Research Institute (ARI) () is a public advanced research institute founded in 1999 in Tehran, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq ...

(ARI) showed live video transmission of mini-environmental lab to enable further studies on the biological capsule. This was the first

biological Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution of ...

payload Payload is the object or the entity that is being carried by an aircraft or launch vehicle. Sometimes payload also refers to the carrying capacity of an aircraft or launch vehicle, usually measured in terms of weight. Depending on the nature of t ...

launched by Iran.

Kavoshgar-4

On March 15, 2011, the ISA launched the Kavoshgar-4 (Explorer-4) rocket carrying a test capsule designed to carry a monkey but without living creatures on board. The

sub-orbital flight A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital revolution, will no ...

reached an apogee of and landed from the launch site. It contained the equipment to house the monkey, without an actual monkey.

Kavoshgar-5

Kavoshgar-5 (Explorer-5), carrying a live monkey, was launched for a 20-minute sub-orbital flight in September 2011, however the mission failed. The capsule contained a rhesus monkey. On October 3, Iran indefinitely postponed further plans while scientists reviewed readiness for future missions.

Kavoshgar-6

In May 2012, Iran announced that it would send more living creatures into space by the summer. On 1 August 2012 Hamid Fazeli from the

Iranian Space Agency The Iranian Space Agency (ISA, Persian language, Persian: ''Sāzmān-e Fazāi-ye Irān'') is Iran's Government of Iran, governmental space agency. The Iranian Space Research Center and Iranian Space Agency are the main organizations carrying ...

announced that the monkey would be launched after

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

, which ended on 19 August 2012. There were no subsequent announcements until December 2012 when it was said that the launch would be soon. On 28 January 2013 Iran claimed that they had launched a monkey, Fargam, into space. ISNA officials then did not comment on the flight until 31 January, when ISNA published a video of the Pishgam Launch, with an internal camera. However, it was noted that the monkey shown in the video had a prominent mole over its left eye, which the monkey in the initial announcement did not. Investigations revealed that for some reason ISNA showed legitimate footage of the rocket's exterior, but recycled footage from the failed 2011 launch where the monkey died. This is particularly unusual as Iran has denied the failed 2011 launch even happened and have denied any monkey either dying or being launched earlier. ISNA spokesmen Mohammad Ebrahimi stated on 4 February that the team assembling the media for the video simply mixed up the footage of a backup monkey and the prime monkey.

Kavoshgar-7

ISNA announced on 10 December, 2013, that they would be launching a Kavoshgar-7 mission from Imam Khomeini Space Centre some time in the next week.

References

{{Iranian space program Space program of Iran Solid-fuel rockets Iranian Space Agency