Iran has successfully test launched a rocket, state media have reported.
The reports said the rocket was a Kavoshgar 3 carrier with an "experimental capsule" that carried a rat, turtle and worms.
BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne says it will raise concern about Iran's growing rocket technology and possible links to its nuclear programme.
Iranian television showed the rocket being fired and later the capsule was seen detaching and spinning into orbit.
The Iranian Aerospace Organisation (IAO) said the capsule included a mini-laboratory and a video camera to enable "further studies on the biological capsule", Iran's Press TV reported.
Experiments
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also shown unveiling another Iranian-made rocket, called the Simorgh.
"It is a great job that living organisms can be sent into space, we do experiments on them and they return to Earth," he said.
"We are going to send a satellite 500km (310 miles) up. The next steps are 700 and 1,000km (435 and 620 miles). Everyone knows that reaching the 1,000km orbit allows you to reach all orbits."
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