Did you know humans might never have walked on the moon if it weren’t for us pooches?
That’s right, 50 years ago today, Russia sent Belka and Strelka into space. The two dogs spent a day orbiting the earth in Sputnik 5. When the spacecraft’s retrorocket was fired, the dogs were found safe and sound in the landing capsule, yay!
They were the first living creatures to travel to space and return to earth alive. Thanks to them, the first human, Yuri Gagarin, was launched safely into space just eight months later.
Belka (which means “white”) and Strelka (”little arrow”) did have some company in the capsule. Along with them for the ride were 40 mice and two rats.
A few months after the flight, Strelka gave birth to six puppies. One of them, named Pushkinka, was given by Russian President Nikita Khrushchev to President John F. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline in 1961. (Sorta like how President Kennedy’s brother Edward gave Bo to the Obamas!)
Most of the “Space Dogs” that Russia sent into orbit were small, female strays that were picked because they didn’t have to stand to pee. That’s right, the pooches had to sit still the whole trip. The dogs were trained to sit for long hours at a time, held down by harnesses, and to wear heavy space suits without trying to chew or wiggle their way out of them. I sure love to go bye-bye, but these space trips don’t sound like they were any fun at all.
Some of the other Space Dogs weren’t as lucky as Belka and Strelka. At the start of a flight just a month before theirs, pooches Bars and Lisichka were killed when the booster rocket blew up during the launch.
What really bums me out is that some of the dogs sent into space weren’t even ever meant to survive. Laika, a stray Husky mix, was the first pooch to go into orbit in Sputnik 2. (In America they called her “Muttnik,” BOL.) She was given just enough oxygen, food and water to survive for a few days. When the life support system batteries died and the capsule ran out of air, poor Laika died up there, all alone and probably really, really scared.
I’m totally proud of Belka, Strelka, Laika and all of my fellow pooches that were trailblazers in getting humans into space – but I sure am glad dogs aren’t sent into space just to die anymore.
PHOTOS: spacetoday.org
