Belka and Strelka
Belka and Strelka, like the rest of the cosmonaut dogs, were picked up on the street in Moscow. The selection was tough: weight - up to 5 kilograms, character - docile, no signs of breed. Even before the experiment began, scientists came to the conclusion: mongrels are more resilient and intelligent.
They took only girls. It was easier to sew spacesuits on them. They were prepared for the flight like real astronauts: in a centrifuge, in a pressure chamber, and in a mute chamber, so that they would not be afraid of a closed space. They were taught to wear sensors and helmets, to eat from automatic feeders. The preparation was carried out in Moscow in an atmosphere of complete secrecy. But the dogs flew to the cosmodrome by ordinary planes. At airports, future cosmonauts were pointed at.
The first to be sent into space weret the Сhaika and the Fox, the favorite of chief designer Sergei Korolev. But 19 seconds after the launch, the ship exploded.
A month later, the Belka and Strelka flew. The legendary launch took place on August 19, 1960. They spent a day in orbit, made 18 orbits around the planet. The dogs descended to earth in a capsule on a parachute. The leaders of the experiment rushed to the device with a sinking heart. The astronauts were alive!
The country met heroes. Crowds gathered on Tverskaya Street, along which Belka and Strelka were being taken to a press conference.
Less than six months have passed since Strelka got offspring. Puppies of the famous mother became interested in America. People from Lubyanka came to the director of the Institute of Aviation Medicine, where the dogs lived. It turned out that US President Kennedy wanted to take one of the puppies for himself.
The puppy became a favorite of his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy.
After Belka and Strelka, four more dogs were launched into space. Two died. It was still dangerous to send a person. Then two consecutive successful starts - Chernushka and Asterisk returned alive and unharmed.Just three weeks after them, Yuri Gagarin soared into the starry sky. He once joked: "I still don't understand who I am — the first person to fly into space, or the last dog."
