In April the Pentagon assessed that Tehran could test an ICBM capable of reaching the United States are early as by 2015. Later in the year a threat report published by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) and the Office of Naval Intelligence concluded that Iran’s space launch and ballistic missile programs are used to “increase the range, lethality, and accuracy of its ballistic missile force.”

Now the deputy head of Iran’s space program has announced that Tehran is planning to send a second monkey into space in the near future. Space.com reported on planned launch and reminded readers about the links between Iran’s space and ballistic missile programs:

Iran’s space ambitions concern officials in the United States and allied nations, as rockets used for such launches can be repurposed fairly easily into intercontinental ballistic missiles. “Any space-launch vehicle capable of placing an object in orbit is directly relevant to the development of long-range ballistic missiles, as well as SLV [space-launch vehicle] technologies, and they’re all virtually identical and interchangeable,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in late January, after Iran’s latest suborbital monkey launch.

The Islamic republic also recently announced it was considering sending a Persian cat into orbit.

Iran’s military last month paraded dozens of advanced missiles through Tehran. The naval chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps boasted at the time that Iran’s capabilities allowed it to destroy American navel assets.

[Photo: MinWashingtonNews / YouTube]