Unusual Animals

The bravest explorers of the cosmos aren't even human.Space biology, a field which gained interest after World War II, started with meager beginnings with exposing fungus spores to cosmic rays in 1946. In the following decades, the V-2 rocket program progressed from blasting fruit flies into space to sending mice and monkeys. The practice is still common today with NASA and Soyuz programs sending up spiders and fish in the past three years to prove these species can adapt to microgravity and transition back upon arrival.However, the nation sending up some of the most head-scratching animal astronauts is Iran. In 2010, the Iranian Space agency launched a ten-foot rocket with a mouse, two turtles, and some worms in tow. All occupants reportedly returned alive. Then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hailed the experiment as proof that Iran could defeat Western technology (circa 1950, maybe?). Iran is determined to launch manned missions by 2018, and wants to send up a Persian cat as early as March 2014. The feline mission is perhaps an attempt to move past the controversy of Iran's last animal launch, when it claimed to have sent a monkey to space but before and after photos appeared to show two separate primates. The agency remains steadfast with its claims that the experiment was indeed a success.