Is the Persian Cat ready for Lift-Off ?

“Iran says it is considering sending a persian cat into space as the next animal astronaut after claiming it launched a monkey earlier this year. The effort is part of Iranian ambitions to send a human into space by 2018, but questions have been raised about the reported successes of the country’s animal missions. Monday’s report by the official IRNA news agency quotes the space official Mohammad Ebrahimi as saying the next animal could be the distinctive persian cat, a long-haired, flat-faced breed named after Iran’s former name of Persia. No other details were given. In February, Iran insisted it successfully sent a monkey outside Earth’s atmosphere and returned it safely. But photos raised international questions about whether the same animal was shown in pre- and post-launch images.”

I assume it was more the name of the species (Persian Cat) which prompted the Iranian authorities to make a fixed booking for it in the next rocket to be launched, rather than any objective scientific arguments.  If everything will go well, they might state that “… a Persian was succesfully brought into orbit and back”. If the mission fails, they will say “… a cat was lost during another test flight.”.

The probability getting valuable data from a cat mission is small, anyhow. Whereas dogs were found by the Russians in the later 50s and early 60s to be extremely cooperative cosmonauts and provided a wealth of useful data, cats are a different story.  Every cat owner knows how delicate these cosy creatures are, how ladylike they behave, how easy it is to offend them and how resentful cats are.

If anybody remembers the pictures of how happy and gratefully “Bjelka and Strjelka“, the two famous Russian space dogs left the Sputnik-5 landing capsule after returning from one day in space, and the first thing they did was running to their owner to lick his feets and face, full of gratitude for this big adventure, the return of a Persian Cat from space will end in a big disappointment:

1)  When the Iranian return capsule opens, the Persian Cat will appear very sleepy and arch its back.

2)  When the scientists try to help her out, she will spit and scratch.

3)  After leaving the capsule, she will walk away without looking back.

4) When she meets other cats, she will pretend that the space is full of mice, and she only came back because all the tomcats around are longing for her.