Throughout its history, there have been many famous dogs in the world, but the outbred dogs Belka and Strelka are considered the most recognizable. This unusual couple of cosmonauts became pioneers and conquerors of space, literally blazing a path for humanity into outer space.
Historically famous flight
Belka and Strelka became the first animals in the history of astronautics, having completed an orbital space flight on the Sputnik-5 spacecraft and returned to Earth unharmed. The ship with the brave dogauts was launched into space on August 19, 1960 and made seventeen complete orbits around our planet.
The flight took only twenty-five hours, after which Belka and Strelka successfully landed at the cosmodrome.
The main goal of the experiment on launching a second spacecraft-satellite into space was to study the effect of space flight on a living biological organism. During the project, factors such as overloads, prolonged weightlessness, the transition from weightlessness to overloads and vice versa, as well as the effect of space radiation on plant and animal organisms were studied. In addition, scientists have conducted several biomedical experiments and space exploration.
Squirrel and Arrow tests
Before the flight, Belka and Strelka passed the most severe selection, during which experts chose applicants based on their age, gender, weight, height, color and even charm. As a result, Belka and Strelka were included in the project, where they became one of twelve dogs participating in a unique experiment. Like real cosmonauts, the animals bravely endured difficult training in transferring overloads, being in prolonged isolation, taking special food, and so on.
The first dogs-astronauts were supposed to be the dogs Chaika and Fox, but their rocket exploded nineteen seconds after the start.
After the tragedy with the Seagull and the Fox, their stunt doubles - Belka and Strelka - were chosen for the role of the first animals to go into space. A month after the approval of their candidacies, both dogs flew on the second spacecraft "Sputnik-5" to Earth's orbit, where they stayed for more than a day, circling the Earth seventeen full times. Having fulfilled their mission, Belka and Strelka safely “docked” and became a world sensation, clearly proving that it is possible to return safely from space. After the flight, the dogs underwent rehabilitation and calmly spent the rest of their lives, living comfortably at the Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine. Thanks to the data that scientists received from their sensational mission, the next flight was developed, in which a man took part - Yuri Gagarin.
