Iranian Space Official: Photo Shows Wrong Monkey

littlesparkvt writes "One of two official packages of photos of Iran's famed 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 confirmed Saturday. The two different monkeys shown in the photos released by Iran’s state media caused some international observers to wonder whether the monkey had died in space or that the launch didn’t go well."

Comments

So

[rossdee]

Its a 'scratch monkey'

Re:So

[wmac1]

According FoxNews (should be valid enough for most!):
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/02/02/iranian-space-official-says-photo-shows-wrong-monkey/

Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity, also said this week's monkey space flight was real, but he had a slightly different explanation for the photo mix-up. He claimed the light gray monkey with the mole died during a failed space mission in 2011.

"The monkey with the mole was the one launched in 2011 that died. The rocket failed. It did not get into space," McDowell said. "They just mixed that footage with the footage of the 2013 successful launch."

Iran has never confirmed that a monkey died in 2011, or that there was a failed mission that year.

Lies!

[SternisheFan]

Just more lies from the decadent western press. Iran's space program is so far advanced that we had a super-secret dermatoligist waiting for this monkey in orbit, where his mole was removed. To believe otherwise goes against our religion, and dis-believers shall be beheaded! - Signed, The current Ayatollah of Iran

Re:Lies!

[Trepidity]

I kind of like that style of signature. Like if instead of signing "Barack Obama" on bills, he signed "The Current President of the United States".

Re:Lies!

[guttentag]

To believe otherwise goes against our religion, and dis-believers shall be beheaded! - Signed, The current Ayatollah of Iran

Official Correction by a Senior Official of the Ayatollah's Space Commission

The Ayatollah who signed that statement was not in fact "the" current Ayatollah of Iran, as there are actually 31 Ayatollahs of Iran. He was simply a man sporting similarly-patterned headwear. However, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei agrees with and endorses the statement, which makes it as true and internationally-significant as the indisputable fact that Iran has put a monkey into space and returned him safely.

Furthermore, the previous senior official who released the signed statement has been beheaded for his failure to recognize an actual Ayatollah. Interviews for those seeking to succeed that official will take place starting Monday, as the Grand Ayatollah will be occupied watching the Superbowl today. He graciously thanks all of the Iranian citizens who have donated their satellite dishes to make this possible.

Iran has a history with PhotoShop

[DigitalSorceress]

So, Iran's got a bit of history with PhotoShop.:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/in-an-iranian-image-a-missile-too-many/

It seems quite reasonable for folks to question ANY photographic evidence / propaganda / news releases from Iranian sources.

Re:Iran has a history with PhotoShop

[SternisheFan]

NY Daily News story says Iran claims they just issued the wrong photo, though there's no video of the rockets return to earth. (Mobile site) http://m.nydailynews.com/news/world/iranian-space-monkey-flight-fake-article-1.1253425

Re:Iran has a history with PhotoShop

[IamTheRealMike]

Hmm. What that article actually says is that a western news organization ran an image that they claimed they found on an Iranian news website, but when that Iranian site was checked later the same day no such image was found - the unaltered original was found there though.

In fact, nobody has been able to find the altered image being served by Iranian media anywhere, it seems. So it ends up being "he said she said". That's why the article says

So far, though, it can’t be said with any certainty whether there is any official Iranian involvement in this instance. Sepah apparently published the three-missile version of the image today without further explanation.

There could be any number of explanations for that, including a patriotic but rogue photographer on the Iranian side, or even some kind of Western propaganda. I'm very doubtful that AFP has been compromised, it's more likely it was done by the Iranians, but unfortunately there is a history of absurdly flaky forgeries that support the case for war against middle eastern countries surfacing through the press. At any rate, it's impossible to conclude from this that there's some kind of systematic Iranian policy of photoshopping news images.

yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah wrong monkey. This is the one that flies their new "stealth" fighter.

Shifted in time

[Ol Biscuitbarrel]

First comment from the monkey:

"Get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty human!"

Good laugh!

[Sponge Bath]

Nations bickering over possibly fraudulent monkey photos put a smile on my face. Many a poo was flung that day that homo sapiens distinguished themselves with productive use of their time.

Re:no problem

[EdgePenguin]

No, for that very reason, we have everything to fear. The Iranians are building reactors on the cheap, without access to western technology, using Russian nuclear engineers who can't get jobs elsewhere. Wikipedia has the nice little factoid that their main weapons reactor is closer to 6 other capital cities other than Tehran.

The largest threat from Iran is likely to be their dangerous incompetence, and this might well apply to their space program also.

Re:Me too! says Iraq

[Larryish]

*waves hand*

"These aren't the monkeys you're looking for."

So much propaganda

[IamTheRealMike]

Here's the explanation given, and apparently some Harvard professor finds it credible:

“I say this with certainty that the monkey is in good health and the space flight didn’t have any physical effect on Pishgam,” Ebrahimi said. “Some of the photos released by one of news agencies were not related to the time of flight. They were archive photos of the monkeys being prepared for the launch.”

Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity, also said this week’s monkey space flight was real, but he had a slightly different explanation for the photo mix-up. He claimed the light gray monkey with the mole died during a failed space mission in 2011.

“The monkey with the mole was the one launched in 2011 that died. The rocket failed. It did not get into space,” McDowell said. “They just mixed that footage with the footage of the 2013 successful launch.”

This sounds plausible to me. My experience of working with news agencies in the west is that they're extremely flaky and news stories are always published in a rush with absolutely minimal fact checking. I'd be surprised if things were much better in Iran. This is hardly

In an ironic meta-fail the article also says, Iran has never confirmed that a monkey died in 2011, or that there was a failed mission that year but that does not appear to be correct.

In short, this entire article can be summed up as, "news organization publishes story with some details incorrect, follows up with corrections" - is it really newsworthy?

Re:So much propaganda

[Lije Baley]

Yeah right, and that same Harvard professor still thought it was credible when 30 other students submitted the same explanation.

Re:WTF a monkey

[Vitriol Angst]

Please note that the suicide bombers are more often coming from people living in the countries of our ALLIES -- like Saudi Arabia.

We've never been directly attacked by Iran. What's the point of having restraint if nobody gives you credit?

I would say that you might have offended some Iranians, but they were probably too busy laughing at you.