March 12, 2014 Text Size Odd News  Ahmadinejad: I'll Be Iran's
First Astronaut  1 User Rating:  / 0  Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has revealed his dream to be his country's first
astronaut.  He said he was willing to sacrifice his life for
Iran's space programme, which aims to send a man into space by
2020 and put an astronaut on the moon by 2025.  "I'm ready to be
the first Iranian to be sacrificed by the scientists of my
country and go into space, even though I know there are a lot of
candidates," state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.
Speaking at a ceremony to unveil two new satellites, Mr
Ahmadinejad added that he was willing to "auction (himself) and
donate" the money to the space programme, which has been hit by
international economic sanctions over Tehran's controversial
nuclear drive.  Iran claimed last week it had successfully sent
a monkey named Pishgam - or Pioneer in Farsi - into space and
brought it back alive.  However, doubts have been raised over
the mission as before-and-after