Iran is planning to send another live monkey into space within a month.

Iran is planning to send another live monkey into space within a month, a top space official said in remarks reported by media Sunday.

"The second live animal will be ready within a month to be sent into space," said Hamid Fazeli, deputy head of Iran's space organization, the Jomhuri Islami newspaper reported.

Iran in January announced to have successfully launched a live monkey into space and to have brought it safely back to earth.

Fazeli said the monkey would be sent into space via "a liquid-fuel launcher," while refusing to set a "definite date" for the launch. Iran has delayed past launches without giving specific reasons.

Akbar Torkan, the interim chief of Iran's space organization, said on Sunday the delays are due to budget woes.

"The decrease in the country's total revenue, and thus the budget, has impacted our space-related activities," Torkan was quoted as telling the official IRNA news agency.

Earlier this week, Fazeli said Iran would put three satellites into space by the end of the Iranian year, in March 2014.

The Islamic Republic, which first put a satellite into orbit in 2009, has outlined an ambitious program with plans to send a man into space within a decade.