Does Iran Still Have a Space Program?

I am somewhat confused as to whether the Iranians still have a space program.  Earlier in the week Iran launched an observation satellite - the Fajr ("Dawn") - into an orbit 280 miles above Earth (see rocket photo).  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also stated "Our scientists have entered a new phase for conquering space. We will continue on this path." 

However, the other week I read an article stating Iran was rolling up its space program.  In an article titled "Iran Just Cancelled its Space Program" (a pretty definitive title), the author states,

After six years of massive expenditures and lurid propaganda, on Jan. 9 Tehran shut down its troubled space program. The unceremonious cancellation occurred without notice in the Iranian press.

It is possible that Iran is firing off the last of its rockets, as the previous author suggested at the end of his article.  It also also possible that the space program has simply shifted among ministries and it is now under the defense ministry.  This is not unusual.  Just look at how the US space program is divided between NASA and the Air Force.  NASA lost its shuttle years ago, but the Air Force is still operating its own shuttle on a variety of missions (none of which have been shared with the public). 

As of today, the Iranian Space Agency website is still up and running.  And until recently, Iran was still talking about manned space missions and sharing the cost of an space station with China.  It seems we will need to wait and see, though the recent launch certainly indicates the country maintains the hardware it needs to jump back in at any time (assuming it jumped out of the space race). 

Space Launches: Monkeys in Space

These past few weeks have seen a number of space launches, including:

--  Japan:  On January 27, Japan launched a two satellites into space, including one that will keep tabs on the North Koreans (who launched their own rocket back in December). 

-- South Korea:  On January 30, South Korea successfully launched a weather satellite.  The Nara rocket used in the launch was built with the assistance of the Russian space agency.  This was the country's first successful attempt to put a satellite into orbit with one of its own rockets. 

-- United States:  On January 30, NASA successfully launched the first of three Tracking and Data Relay Stations to improve communications with the International Space Stations, the Hubble Space Telescope, and other space missions.

-- Russia: On February 1, the Russian-owned, Pacific-based Sea Launch AG rocket (Ukrainian-built) failed to put an Intelsat 27 satellite into orbit.  In a press release, Sea Launch reported:

"We are very disappointed with the outcome of the launch and offer our sincere regrets to our customer, Intelsat, and their spacecraft provider, Boeing,” said Kjell Karlsen, president of Sea Launch AG. “The cause of the failure is unknown, but we are evaluating it and working closely with Intelsat, Boeing, Energia Logistics Ltd. and our Zenit-3SL suppliers. We will do everything reasonably possible to recover from this unexpected and unfortunate event.”

However, the real news story of the past week or so was Iran's launch of a monkey into space.  On January 28, Iran announced the successful rocket launch.  However, no one could independently confirm the launch, which is pretty strange given the number of nations currently monitoring (aka "spying on") the country.  And now there are more stories about two different pictures of the space monkey, something the Iranians attribute to confusion by the Iranian press.  Of course, the Iranians have lost credibility over the years with false statements, such as 2008 doctored images of a Revolutionary Guards missile launch. 

Iran is credited for earlier launches including a rat, two turtles and a worm (it also tried a monkey with no luck in 2011), as well as two Earth-observing satellites back in 2011 and 2012, so they are not new to this. Iranian space officials see the early tests as part of plans to send a human into space by 2020, and maybe even place an astronaut on the moon by 2025.  The moon may be very crowded in the 2020s if all of the countries aiming for it meet their goals. 

Launch Image Above:  March 19, 2008 Zenit-3SL rocket launch by the Sea Launch Co.