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Laika

laika_mockup.gif
There were two Laika…

Yesterday, my friends Gediminas and Nomeda told me the real story of Laika.
Two dogs went to space:
Strielka,”little arrow”, which was the first one,
and Bielka, “squirrel”, the second one.
Laika is just the RACE of these dogs…

One Response to “Laika”

  1. peter Says:

    hi Laurent,
    i found this list of russian dogs sent into space on the website of stanford university,
    it seems laika wasn’t the only space travelling dog… poor doggies!

    peter

    Between 1957 and 1966, the USSR (now Russia) sent 13 dogs into space in preparation for future missions. The dogs included:

    * Laika (meaning “Barker”) – died during a mission (Sputnik 2, November 1957)
    * Lisichka (meaning “Little Fox”) and Bars (meaning “Panther” or “Lynx”) – died during a test flight on July 28, 1960
    * Strelka (meaning “Little Arrow”) , Belka (meaning “Squirrel”), 40 mice, 2 rats and a number of plants – safely recovered from Korabl’-Sputnik-2. Launched August 19, 1960, it orbited the Earth 18 times. This was the first successful recovery of living biological specimens after an orbital mission. Strelka later gave birth to a litter of 6 healthy puppies; one was given to President John F. Kennedy as a gift.
    * Pchelka (meaning “Little Bee”) and Mushka (meaning “Little Fly”)- died when Korabl’-Sputnik-3 re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere at the wrong angle and burned up, (launched December 1, 1960)
    * Damka (meaning “Little Lady”) and Krasavka (meaning “Beauty”) – Launched December 22, 1960, but the third stage of the SL-3 rocket failed, and the orbital launch was aborted; the two dogs survived an unplanned suborbital flight.
    * Chernushka (meaning “Blackie”), a dummy cosmonaut (known as “Ivan Ivanovich”), a few mice and a guinea pig – launched March 9, 1961.
    * Zvezdochka (meaning “Little Star”) and a dummy cosmonaut in a space suit – launched on March 25, 1961 and orbited once in final preparation for the Vostok 1 mission. Zvezdochka was named by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
    * Verterok or Veterok (meaning “Breeze”) and Ugolyok or Ugolek (meaning “Little Piece of Coal”) were launched on February 22, 1966, in the satellite Kosmos 110. This was a 22-day mission.