Iran's Space Agency officials announced that they have launched production of spacesuits along with their attempts to produce spacecrafts. Head of Aerospace Research Institute (ARI) of Iran Mohammad Ebrahimi told Mehr News that Iran has plans to send human to outer space, and that technology for spacesuit production is hi-tech, attainment of which is very expensive and needs high knowledge as well.

"Iran has moved into this technology recently, joining few countries in the field," he added.

Ebrahimi also asserted that sanctions have not held back Iran from progress in aerospace, and Iran has embarked on the project for production of these critical facilities and remaining in the space competitions.

"By the next 8 years, Iran will gain the technical knowledge of spacesuit design and development. The technology is highly expensive, the production cost of it being tantamount to the price of one kilogram of gold," he explained.

"As project manager, the Institute will cooperate with Shiraz Mechanics Research Institute, and we estimate that spacesuits will be produced by the time Iran sends man to outer space," he asserted.

Head of Iran's Space Agency (ISA) Hamid Fazeli on Sunday said his agency plans to send big animals and even human being to short and long space journeys in the not far future.

Fazeli said the country plans to first send big animals, including chimpanzees, into the space in the near future and then send human beings aboard a bio-capsule to a specific altitude into the outer space and return them within less than 30 minutes.

"The plan for sending and returning humans to and from the space will be carried out by the next four years and the plan for sending a human being into the space and putting him into the earth's orbit will be launched in the next 10 years," Fazeli added.

The ISA head pointed out that so far only three countries have achieved the know-how.

On January 8, Secretary of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution Mokhber Dezfouli said that Iran has prepared plans to send more living creatures into the space on the back of its home-made rockets.

"The aerospace plan is a single document for the country based on which we are seeking to send living creatures into the space," Mokhber Dezfouli said in Tehran at the time.

He expressed the hope that sending living creatures by Iran will be a prelude to sending human beings into the space.

In relevant remarks in March 2012, Fazeli announced that the country plans to send a monkey into the space on the back of Kavoshgar (Explorer) 5 rocket in the near future.

He said that the Iranian shuttle, Kavoshgar-5 carrying monkey to space will be launched into space during March-August 2012.

"Kavoshgar-5 will carry a biological capsule containing a monkey into space. This is actually a prelude to preparing Iran for sending a human astronaut into space before 2021," Fazeli said at the time.

In mid-March 2011, Iran's space organization announced the launch of the Kavoshgar-4 rocket carrying a test capsule designed to house the monkey.

The capsule had been unveiled in February 2011 by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, along with four new prototypes of home-built satellites.

At the time, Fazeli called the launch of a large animal into space as the first step towards sending a man into space, which Tehran says is scheduled for 2020.

Iran has already sent small animals into space - a rat, turtles and worms - aboard a capsule carried by its Kavoshgar-3 rocket in 2010.

The Islamic republic, which first put a satellite into orbit in 2009, has outlined an ambitious space program and has, thus far, made giant progress in the field despite western sanctions and pressures against its advancement.