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55 Years Ago The Soviet Union Sent 2 Dogs Into Space…And They Lived To Bark About It

  • 21/08/2015
Belka and Strelka reporting for duty.jpg
Throughout the 1950s, the Soviet Union sent numerous dogs on sub-orbital flights in order to determine the safety level for the humans that would later take their places. The dogs usually survived, but there were a few casualties in those initial sub-orbital tests.

Then in November 1957, almost three-and-a-half years before Yuri Gagarin became the first man to journey into outer space, Laika, a stray dog from the streets of Moscow, became the first animal to orbit the Earth. Sadly, it was initially reported that Laika died from lack of oxygen on day six of her journey aboard Sputnik 2, but in 2002 it was finally revealed that she actually died between five and seven hours into the flight from stress and overheating. Of course, with no de-orbit technology at the time, she wouldn’t have survived the mission anyway.

Despite the Laika tragedy, the Soviet Union was determined to keep going. On July 28, 1960, the first Vostok capsule with dogs Chaika and Lisichka onboard was launched. 30 seconds in, the launch vehicle disintegrated due to vibrations. The module carrying the dogs was meant to detach and descend safely to Earth via parachute, but due to the low altitude, the parachutes only partially deployed and the dogs were killed on impact. Some good did come out of it, though, as the disaster led to the development of an ejector seat for cosmonauts.

Next up was Korabl-Sputnik 2, known as Sputnik 5 in the West, which launched on August 19, 1960. This time, two dogs, Belka and Strelka were onboard along with a grey rabbit, 42 mice, 2 rats, flies and several plants and fungi. After the horrible deaths of Laika, Chaika and Lisichka, all eyes were on the Soviet Union.

A day after launch, after multiple orbits, the spacecraft returned to the Earth with its entire animal crew unharmed. An onboard television camera and telemetry recorded the dogs barking when they passed the US Echo satellite, a nitrogen-filled balloon covered in reflective foil, and even notified ground control of one dog possibly suffering a seizure during the fourth orbit, which led the Soviet Union to limit the first manned mission to three orbits.

 

Charlie and Pushinka.jpg

Belka and Strelka found themselves celebrities in the USSR and all around the world after becoming the first dogs to successfully orbit the Earth. A year later, Strelka had six puppies, one of which, Pushinka, was given to President Kennedy’s family by Nikita Kruschev. Pushinka and Charlie, the Kennedy’s other dog, then had four puppies JFK referred to as “pupniks.” Butterfly and Streaker were given to kids in the midwest while the other two, White Tips and Blackie, were gifted to Kennedy family friends.

After their deaths, Belka and Strelka were taxidermied and displayed at the Moscow Museum of Space and Aeronautics. In 2010, they were the subjects of a Russian computer-animated film called Space Dogs. Pushinka’s lineage has continued to this day and photos of her descendants are on display at Zvezda Museum outside Moscow. Most importantly, the mission proved that spaceflight was possible for living things and nine months later, history was made when Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth on April 12, 1961.

Belka-Strelka-space-dogs.jpg

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