Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad joked he is so serious about making sure Iran advances technologically that he'd volunteer to go to space for his country if needed.
"I am ready to be the first human to be sent to space by Iranian scientists," he said after meeting Monday with Iranian space scientists, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency.
The president's comments, made in jest, came a week after the state's semi-official Fars News Agency said Iran had "sent a monkey to the orbit, brought it back to the Earth and retrieved the animal and the relevant data successfully."
Meantime, several Iranian news organizations sought to explain why there appeared to be two different monkeys portrayed by the press.
"There are a lot of questions about whether the monkey that they reportedly sent up into space and reportedly came down was actually the same monkey, whether he survived," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. "The monkey that they showed later seemed to have different."
Iranian news organizations explained that the monkey shown in the pre-launch photos was actually from a failed launch in 2001. Iranians still insist that the monkey went up to space, came back alive and the launch was successful.
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I miss the Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff tag-team.
I knew him!
SHOES COME AND SHOES GO BUT SHOES THROWN AT IRAN PREZ. MIGHT LET PEOPLE KNOW...
He would be the best replacement for the monkey.
My hat's off to Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and his leadership. I wish Iran all the luck in it's space program. Let's all hope that Iran continues to buck the U.S. politics of hunger and forge ahead. We Americans sorely need to quit being bullies on the world stage and how!!!
"We Americans" !!!!yeeeaaaaah righ
Well.... the pre launch monkey was from 2001 and they accept that the live monkey they showed later was a different one. So the question is " where is the prelaunch monkey ?? ". It is hilarious. Any reasonably intelligent person can say that they are faking the entire thing. They did try, but I am sure the monkey died. Like their plastic fighter jet that they recently unveiled, of a design that any aerospace engineer can tell you will never fly, their space aspirations are also just that – aspirations.
Next Iranian monkey schedule to go into space is Ahmadinejad himself.
on second thought, Iranians should try sending peace loving George Patton #2 aka phunnie boy.
No doubt. The Ayatolllah will be most happy to see him on the next flight.. and lke the monkey, he will also meet his maker.
America is the root of all terror. America has invaded sixty countries since world war 2.
In 1953 America overthrow Iran's democratic government Mohammad Mosaddegh and installed a brutal dictator Shah. America helped Shah of Iran to establish secret police and killed thousands of Iranian people.
During Iran-Iraq war evil America supported Suddam Hossain and killed millions of Iranian people. In 1989, America, is the only country ever, shot down Iran's civilian air plane, killing 290 people.
In 2003,America invaded Iraq and killed 1,000,000+ innocent Iraqi people and 4,000,000+ Iraqi people were displaced.
Now America is a failed state with huge debt. Its debt will be 22 trillion by 2015.
Quite true John, quite true. Thanks for your input here.
@ John Smith...What do your comments have to do with Monkey's going into space? People die in wars and have so in every one. Some of the invading wars were geared toward world peace. The next thing you say is that Ronald Reagan was not a great President? Go march and wave your flag...
Very american name.. John Smith.... ha..ha.. Other than in the movie Matrix, I haven ot seen a person named SMith. you must be pretty ignorant. Iran saw its greatest economic boom and freedom during the times of the Shah. You forget that we have a lot of Iranian expatriates living in the US and I am yet to see an Iranian here who has a good opinion to say about your government.
That is why we are the best. USA! USA! USA!
That is Awesome Fred! Very true...And they don't like it, Beat it!
Monkey see, monkey do.