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Iran Launches a Monkey; South Korea, its First Successful Rocket; Technological Apartheid Lobby in a Tizzy
1 February 2013
(EIRNS)—It has been a bad week for the oligarchs, and the international non-proliferation mafia, in particular. On January 28th, Iran successfully launched and recovered a monkey, which took a brief, 75-mile-high suborbital flight. The flight had been expected to occur later, during the 10 days of national festival, celebrating the 34th anniversary of the revolution, which starts on January 31st. As Feb. 2nd is Iran’s Space Technology Day, it is expected that new projects will be unveiled then. The Pishgam (Pioneer) capsule, with monkey inside, was carried into space Monday by a Kavoshgar rocket, as a test of life-support systems that are precursors to manned flight. Earlier this month, Iran space agency head, Hamid Fazeli, stated in an interview that a suborbital human mission would take place within four years, and one to orbit, in ten, according to Press TV. Although there have, predictably, been hysterical freak-outs and war drum-beating from the "media," from Israel, and others, Harvard astronomer and space flight expert, Jonathan McDowell, told The New York Times that this launch ``doesn’t demonstrate any militarily significant technology. This is a tiny old rocket, and what’s on top is useful only for doing astronaut stuff." The same point was made by Russian/Iranian/North Korean space authority, Charles Vick, and space expert James Oberg. Asked about the Iranian launch, Department of State spokesman Victoria Nuland replied that she had seen the pictures of ``the poor little monkey preparing to go into space.’’ Apparently Ms. Nuland has never visited ``poor little’’ Miss Baker, one of NASA’s first monkeynauts, whose stuffed little body is on display in the National Air & Space Museum. Nuland added that the launch violates UN resolution 1929, so more sanctions against Iran could be on the table. Then, today, after two failed attempts, South Korea succeeded in sending a small remote sensing satellite in to orbit, aboard the Russian-Korean KSLV-1 rocket. North Korea had accomplished the same feat, in December. In a post-launch press conference, the government’s Minister of Education, Science, and Technology, Lee Ju-ho, said the nation had taken ``a leap toward becoming a power in space technology.’’ While the first stage of the KSLV-1 is Russian built, South Korea plans to launch a completely indigenous liquid-fueled rocket by 2021. And why did the South Koreans go to Russia for the first stage of their rocket? Because non-proliferation agreements with the United States limited the development of their own technology, for fear of accelerating a regional arms race. The North Koreans protested the blatant unequal treatment of itself and the South by the UN. Last week the UN adopted a resolution tightening sanctions aganst North Korea because of their launch. Kong Chang-duk, a professor at South Korea’s Chosun University, noted that the same argument used against North Korea could be used against Seoul, AP reported. South Korea may be able, in the future, ``to build better missiles and scrutinize North Korea with a better satellite,’’ he said.’’ [MGF] |