The Iranian Space Agency (ISA) has failed to send a live monkey into space using the country's indigenous rocket.

The ISA made the admission Thursday but did not say what happened to the rhesus monkey it placed in the Kavoshgar-5 rocket to test the effects of space travel in animals and humans. The experiment was part of the agency's program to send Iran's own astronauts into space by 2020.

The Kavoshgar-5 had previously put a live rat, turtles and worms into orbit. It had also put Iran's first satellite into orbit.
Iranian Deputy Science Minister Mohammad Mehdinejad-Nouri said the launch of the monkey into orbit and the date of the launching were not publicised because it failed.

Iran is the fourth country in history to use monkey in space flight experiments. The U.S. was the first to launch the animal into space from 1948 to 1985.The first monkey astronaut was a rhesus called Albert, who was flown 63 kilometres high on a V2 rocket. The monkey, died from suffocation.

France also flew a monkey into space in 1967 followed by the former Soviet Union and the Russian Federation in 1983 and 1996.