The State Department is questioning whether Iran actually sent a monkey into space and returned it home safely last week, the Associated Press reports:

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said a lot of questions remained “about whether the monkey that they reportedly sent up into space and reportedly came down was actually the same monkey, whether he survived.”

Two different monkeys were shown in photos of the mission. Iran insists the monkey survived its space flight, blaming the mixup on the media, which it claimed originally used a photo of a backup monkey.

The monkey mission drew attention Monday after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared it a success and said he is considering being the first Iranian in space.

“”Wasn’t he just there last week?” Sen. John McCain tweeted.