Science Saturday IV: Iran in Space

Hardly anyone noticed, but Iran has joined the small international space club.

Last October, Russia launched an Irani Shahab-3 rocket carrying a small spacecraft of several hundred pounds for its oil-rich friend. The satellite orbits the earth once every 99 minutes and reportedly has a camera.

The Shabab-3 (see photo) is a successor to earlier models, which originated with the infamous Scud

Why would Iran want to go into space? Bragging rights? As a building block in its nuclear program? The New York Times has more here.

UPDATE: FROM DUMONT TO PONTES

Meanwhile, a capsule carrying Brazil's first astronaut, as well as a Russian and an American, landed safely in the Kazakh steppe early Sunday after leaving the International Space Station.

Brazilian Marcos Pontes, seated in a chair outside the capsule, grinned and gave a thumbs-up as his bulky spacesuit was removed. He was handed a Brazilian flag and a Panama hat that was pulled out of the capsule -- apparently one that he had carried to the space station in tribute to the Brazilian inventor and aviator Alberto Santos Dumont, to whom Pontes had dedicated his flight.

CNN has more here.