By The Associated Press

Published: Saturday, February 2, 2013, 8:08 p.m.
Updated: Saturday, February 2, 2013

TEHRAN — One of two official packages of photos of Iran's simian space traveler depicted the wrong monkey, but a primate really did fly into space and return safely to Earth, a senior Iranian space official said on Saturday.

The two different monkeys in the photos released by Iran's state media caused international observers to wonder whether the monkey had died in space or that the launch did not go well.

One set of pictures showed a relatively dark-haired monkey. Another showed a different monkey — strapped in a pod — that had light gray hair and a distinctive red mole above its right eye.

The space agency official, Mohammad Ebrahimi, said the first images provided to Iran's official news outlets to illustrate their reports had mistakenly shown another of the five monkeys that trained for the flight at the space agency — the one with the mole — and not the one that had actually taken part in the space mission.

1. Unchecked looting guts Egypt’s heritage, with one ancient site ‘70 percent gone’
2. Egyptian court decision troubles world leaders
3. Iran’s supreme leader tells off U.S. critics of election
4. Hezbollah to stay involved in Syria’s civil war
5. New diet craze offers 5 days of feasting for 2 days of famine
6. Erdogan rally, protests split Turkey

There are currently no comments for this story.
Subscribe today! Click here for our subscription offers.