Astronaut dogs. Honest story. Dogs in space. We remember the animals who gave their lives for our development

They became the first living beings to make an orbital flight and return to Earth. This day, one might say, became another “holiday with tears in our eyes”: the history of canine space travel as a whole is inhumanly sad...

"There is a huge starship
Space fleet.
All the people built it
For a test flight.
The steelmaker cooked the steel for him,
The painter painted it with varnish.
The radio operator made a receiver.
Who should fly? To the dogs!

Physiologist Pavlov probably could not have imagined that, thanks to his thorough research and the experience accumulated by him and his followers as a result of experiments with dogs, it would be four-legged friends that would be chosen by Soviet scientists for the first flights into space. It is known that American researchers tried to launch monkeys into space, but the experiments failed. And the dogs were more amenable to training, were calmer and more stable, and could tolerate stress better. The first dog race took place on July 22, 1951 at the Kapustin Yar training ground. Dezik and Gypsy took off on a rocket to an altitude of 87 kilometers 700 meters, and 15 minutes later they parachuted down not far from the launch pad.
Alexander Seryapin, an employee of the Institute of Aviation Medicine, who prepared the dogs for the flight, recalled: “The first flight turned out to be very successful, the dogs were alive. When we freed them, many cars drove up, and Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was in one of them. When he saw the dogs, in my opinion, there was no happier person there. I was surprised... such a respectable man, he grabbed these dogs and ran with them around this very cabin. He gave them water, sausages and sugar. Then I took them into my car...”

When you read historical information about dog flights, your heart clench many times over. All these wonderful smart dogs with trusting eyes are introduced, who were loved, trained, fed and walked, and then sent to their fate. Dezik and Fox died due to problems in the parachute system, Mishka and Chizhik died from suffocation, the second Fox and Bulba died from hitting the ground. The fox was A. Seryapin’s favorite, the scientist was present at the launch, independently seated his favorite in the aircraft “so that she calmly descended from an altitude of 90 kilometers and surveyed the Earth with her gaze,” and witnessed the accident at an altitude of about 40 km. Violating the instructions, Seryapin buried the Fox in the steppe, in the places where he walked with his favorite.

Palma and Fluff died due to depressurization of the cabin, Laika died from stress and overheating of the cabin, Zhulba and Button died due to a failure of the parachute system. Chanterelle and Seagull exploded, Bee and Mushka exploded. And so on.

In total, 48 Soviet dogs and two Chinese dogs were sent into space (Xiao Bao and Shanshan, who flew in turns, and then returned and gave birth to healthy puppies). 20 dogs died.

Someone might say that animals die every day on Earth, including at the hands of humans. But for some reason I especially feel sorry for those lost in space.

Each lost dog life forced designers to think about unaccounted for moments, correct mistakes and improve equipment and emergency technologies. We can say that at the cost of their lives, the astronaut dogs saved the life of the human astronaut.

At the same time, the deaths of dogs were perceived by scientists as a personal grief - after all, during the preparation for flights, dogs and people got used to each other, the employees had favorites among the four-legged animals. And the chief designer Korolev knew each animal by sight and inquired daily about their well-being. In the morning, when he came to work, he went first to the dogs, and then to his office.

Physiologist Oleg Gazenko, who led the dog training program, said: “Any experimenter working with animals does not perceive them as dogs. He rather perceives them as his colleagues and friends. And the amazing thing is that those small painful procedures - injections or cutting of fur to insert the sensor - were never perceived by the animals as an aggressive, unfriendly act. On the contrary - sometimes they turned and licked me on the cheek.”

In confirmation of the words of O. Gazenko, participant in the experiments V. Malkin talked about his canine colleagues: “I never thought that they were familiar with the works of Newton, and in particular, with the law of universal gravitation. I found out about this while watching a film about one of the flights. There was an unscrewed nut in the compartment, and in zero gravity it began to fly. You should have seen how surprised the dog looked! I still couldn’t understand why the nut didn’t fall off. Since then, I am ready to bet that the laws of nature are familiar to dogs. But I don’t think they felt any fear. At least our space ones..."

In this context, it is impossible not to remember Laika, launched into space on November 3, 1957. She was the only dog ​​that people doomed to certain death (in other cases, dogs died due to accidental mistakes and omissions). The dog was sent on its first orbital flight without having time to develop a mechanism for returning the aircraft to Earth. Subsequently, it became known that the designers were urged by the highest government leadership, who at all costs wanted to demonstrate outstanding achievements to the world and thus celebrate the 40th anniversary of the revolution. Moreover, in the space race it was impossible to give in to the Americans (who unsuccessfully tried to send chimpanzees into space). So a living dog suffered because of human ambitions. I remember Dostoev’s famous “tear of a tortured child” and it seems that it would be better to lose all these intercontinental races, but not to offend an innocent dog.

The laboratory staff had a particularly difficult time with this start. V. Yazdovsky, who headed medical and biological research on rockets, recalled: “Laika was a nice little dog - quiet, very calm. Before leaving for the cosmodrome, I once brought it home and showed it to the children. They played with her. I wanted to do something nice for the dog. After all, she didn’t have long to live.”

A. Seryapin admitted: “Before the flight, I shook Laika’s face. I understood that she would not return, but I urged her to be smart.”

The tragic fate of Laika struck society. “The shaggiest, loneliest, most unfortunate dog in the world” - this phrase from the New York Times flew around the planet; numerous letters were sent to the Kremlin with indignation about the cruelty to the animal.

It is known that, among others, there was a proposal to send Secretary General N. Khrushchev himself to hell on the same ship. The image of a doomed dog still appears in the compositions of rock and pop groups - as a metaphor for the impossibility of return. There are also references to Laika in various cartoons and science fiction films - sometimes compassionate scriptwriters “rescue” the dog and find her alive in distant star worlds, on unexplored planets.

O. Gazenko recalled: “...When you understand that you cannot return this Laika, that she is dying there, and that you cannot do anything, and that no one, not just me, no one can return her, because there is no system for returning , this is a very difficult feeling... When I returned from the cosmodrome to Moscow, and for some time there was still jubilation: speeches on the radio, in newspapers, I left the city. I wanted some privacy.”

Gazenko subsequently took home another astronaut dog, Zhulka (who also flew under the nicknames Snezhinka and Zhemchuzhnaya) after her next difficult flight. The capsule with the dogs deviated greatly from its course and landed in Evenkia, in the area where the Tunguska meteorite fell. The animals were found only three days later. Despite the extremely low air temperature, the dogs survived. “I had a cordial relationship with Zhulka,” Gazenko recalled. - I remember how I installed it in the cabins. Sometimes you involuntarily do something uncomfortable for her, you press unpleasantly, she bit me very carefully on the cheek, they say, be more careful, it’s not good.”

After the flight, Zhulka lived with the scientist for another 12 years.

Laika's flight showed that a living creature can be in orbit. After this, Soviet designers did not launch spacecraft with living beings on board for three years: they developed a system for returning to Earth. When the mechanism was ready, selection work began.

The dogs for the flight were carefully chosen. On the streets and in doorways they caught mongrels - with the expectation that they were stronger and more resilient than purebreds, and in addition, more intelligent, since they had already managed to fight for survival.

The astronaut dog had to weigh no more than 6 kilograms and be no taller than 35 centimeters. Only females took part in the competition - it was easier for them to arrange a toilet. A light color was considered preferable: this made it easier to observe the animal on monitors. In addition, scientists chose the most beautiful dogs, because in the event of a successful flight, they would have to be “presented” to the press, and to the entire world community. The capsules in which the dogs were planned to be sent into space were designed so that the dogs could see and hear each other. They were planned to be launched into space in pairs in order to obtain more objective research results, since different organisms could react differently to the same stimuli. By the way, this often happened.

An important point: the animals had to communicate comfortably with each other - in order to avoid excesses during the flight. As a result, 12 dogs aged from 2 to 6 years were selected.

The training was carried out in the strictest secrecy next to the Dynamo stadium, behind the fence of the military Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine - in a red brick house that housed the Mauritania Hotel before the revolution.

By the time of the flight, the trained dogs had become real professionals: they could withstand overloads, spin on a centrifuge, not be afraid of vibrations or loud sounds, sit patiently in the cabin for a long time (the animals were seated in small containers, which in turn were placed in a mock-up of the spacecraft), carry special equipment, be fed with special food from feeding machines. In addition, the dogs patiently allowed scientists to record data on the condition of the muscles, brain, heart, circulatory system, etc.
The future heroines of dog flights acquired the following characteristics: “Squirrel is a purebred white female - the leader of the team, the most active and sociable. During training she showed the best results, was among the first to approach the bowl of food, and was the first to learn to bark if something went wrong. Strelka is a light-colored mongrel female with brown spots - timid and a little reserved, but nevertheless friendly.”

By the way, the funny rhyming nicknames “Belka and Strelka” appeared among the dogs shortly before the flight. White Albina and spotted Marquise changed their names with the light hand of the Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Forces, Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin.

He decided that the names of space explorers should sound “our way,” without any foreign, alien connotation.

Three months after the flight of Belka and Strelka, the marshal would tragically die during a rocket launch at Baikonur, without ever seeing the first man fly into space.

Few people know that Belka and Strelka were backups - they flew instead of Chaika and Lisichka, who died during the launch of a similar rocket on June 28, 1960 (the rocket exploded during takeoff). It is known that the general designer S. Korolev was very fond of Chanterelle. Designer B. Chertok recalled the preparations for this flight: “The Korolev really liked the affectionate red Fox. At the MIK, doctors were preparing to try it on in the ejection capsule of the descent module. With engineer Shevelev, we discussed another note on interfacing the electrical circuits of the “dog” container of the catapult and the descent vehicle. The fox did not react at all to our arguments and the general turmoil of the test. Korolev approached. I was about to report, but he waved me off, without asking the doctors, he took Chanterelle in his arms. She clung to him trustingly. Sergei Pavlovich carefully stroked the dog and, without being embarrassed by those around him, said: “I really want you to come back.” Korolev’s face was unusually sad. He held it for a few more seconds, then handed it to someone in a white coat and, without looking back, slowly walked into the noisy hall of the MIK. Over the years of working together, Korolev and I have been in the most difficult life situations many times. Depending on the circumstances, I experienced different, sometimes contradictory, feelings towards him. My memory retains this episode of a hot day in July 1960. Korolev strokes Chanterelle, and for the first time I feel such a feeling of pity for him that a lump comes to my throat. Or maybe it was a premonition.”

Less than a month has passed since that moment, and Korolev released Belka and Strelka into the sky. Both dogs were about two and a half years old at the time of the space flight. Special spacesuits of red and green colors were sewn for them.

On August 19, 1960, at 11:44 a.m., the Sputnik-5 spacecraft was launched into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, from launch complex No. 1. The ship was equipped with equipment for monitoring dogs - it was important to find out how overload, weightlessness, cosmic radiation, etc. affect a living organism. In addition to Belka and Strelka, the ejected container contained 12 mice, insects, plants, fungal cultures, seeds of corn, wheat, peas, onions and some types of microbes. In addition, 28 mice and two white rats were placed outside the ejection container in the ship's cabin. The mass of the satellite ship without the last stage of the launch vehicle was 4600 kg.

Air purification was carried out on board, and feeding machines provided the dogs with food and water. Also, for the first time in the history of space exploration, television surveillance was established on the ship.

Strelka endured the flight with stability and calm. But Belka, on the fourth orbit around the Earth, began to feel unwell, she began to show restlessness, bark, and struggle. After some time, the dog became quiet and, judging by the readings of numerous sensors on its body, returned to normal. Belka's strange attack led scientists to believe that it would be prudent to send the first man on only one orbit in order to protect the astronaut as much as possible from unforeseen reactions.

Belka and Strelka spent 25 hours in space and made 17 complete orbits around the Earth. During their flight they covered a distance of 700 thousand km. In addition, to the deep satisfaction of observers, the dogs barked in unison at the American communications satellite Echo-1 flying past.

V.S. Georgievsky became one of those who met the space explorers: “Having arrived at the landing site, I ran out of the helicopter and rushed to the descent module... The now famous dogs Belka and Strelka, seeing and recognizing me, immediately allowed me to draw a conclusion about their good condition. They caressed, quietly barked and squealed; therefore, there was nothing wrong with the vocal cords. It was also not possible to detect any abrasions or irritations on the body, as far as could be determined by the light of the helicopter headlights and flashlights. The heart and lungs were fine, the stomach was soft and painless. While I was extracting rats and other biological objects, the dogs walked a little in the steppe.”

Of course, the dogs immediately gained popular love. They were depicted on postcards and stamps, and their image was used in folk crafts of various kinds. They were taken to kindergartens, schools, and orphanages. A filmstrip was released about the space journey of Belka and Strelka with witty poems by Yu. Yakovlev and drawings by K. Likhachev (at the beginning of the article there is a quote from the same poem):

"Pressed against the dark window
Cold noses
The dogs met the moon

And they shouted to her:
"Woof-woof, Luna!
Bang-bang, Luna!
You are very visible!"

Soon after the flight, the star dogs were taken to filming in a television studio. While the operators were preparing the equipment, the dogs ran into the neighboring pavilion, where, by a funny coincidence, they met another idol of the Soviet people - the winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition, American pianist Van Cliburn, who came to Moscow to give concerts and was invited to film the program “We Will Meet Again.” According to L. Radkevich, who accompanied the dogs, Cliburn was delighted and became so carried away by Belka and Strelka that he was almost late for the start of filming - the television crew found the pianist peacefully communicating with the cute mongrels.

A few months after the triumphant flight, Strelka gave birth to six completely healthy puppies - Tishka, Malyshka, Pushinka, Dymka, Damka and Kudryashka. Their father was the dog Pushok, who did not fly into space, but underwent pre-flight training and testing.

N. Khrushchev presented the fluff to the wife of US President John Kennedy, Jacqueline, and their daughter Caroline.

Belka and Strelka never flew anywhere else, and spent the rest of their days in the enclosure of the Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine. Now their stuffed animals are on display in the Moscow Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics.

Man's flight into space was a foregone conclusion. S. Korolev insisted that two more successful dog flights take place before the launch of a rocket with a person on board. On March 9, 1961, Chernushka made a space journey. Its flight consisted of one revolution around the planet. On March 25, Zvezdochka was sent into space. It was no longer a second dog that flew with her, but a mannequin with a sewn-in ampoule of human blood, which the cosmodrome employees called “Ivan Ivanovich.” This time it was planned to test in detail the scenario being prepared for the first man's flight into space.

It is known that before the flight the dog’s name was Udacha, and the new name was given to it by none other than Yuri Gagarin. He and other space applicants were present at the launch. The first human cosmonaut said: “With some kind of mixed feeling of awe and admiration, I looked at the gigantic structure, rising like a tower at the cosmodrome. People who looked very small were busy around it. I watched with interest their final preparations for the launch...” After 18 days, a man flew into space. According to rumors, after returning to Earth, Gagarin uttered an ambiguous phrase somewhere on the sidelines: “I still don’t understand who I am: “the first man” or “the last dog.”

The last canine space crew consisted of Veterok and Ugolek. They launched on February 22, 1966 and spent 22 days in orbit - at that time it was the longest flight. The dogs were subjected to serious trials and returned exhausted, with bedsores and lost hair. At first they could not stand on their feet and were constantly thirsty. However, they managed to get out, and after some time on Earth they returned to normal.

Fortunately, dogs never flew into space again. But man has been overcoming airless spaces for more than 50 years. And how I would like his stay there to bring truly worthy fruits, so that the sacrifices and efforts of man’s most faithful friends, silent and patient, would be justified.

Special for the Centenary

It all started with man's desire to explore space. To do this, scientists needed to conduct various experiments, experiments, and studies. All of them were aimed at accurately determining how vibrations, overloads and changes in gravity affect a living organism. At the first stages, it was strictly forbidden to conduct such studies on humans.

Why dogs?

For experiments and research, scientists needed highly organized animals, and these were monkeys and dogs.

At first, scientists chose monkeys, but it turned out to be almost impossible to work with them. As soon as research began, the monkeys showed aggression. They were under constant stress, did not respond to training, and did not tolerate stress well. And then scientists realized that monkeys have nothing to do in space.

For the experiments, a stable psychological state was extremely important, because the animal had to be equipped with many sensors. The only suitable creature was a dog.

The mongrel is a breed that has gone down in history

Not every dog ​​was suitable for testing. The cabin in the test rocket was very small - only a dog weighing up to 6 kg and no more than 35 cm tall could fit in. After conducting several tests, scientists determined that the smartest and smartest one was a yard dog without a breed. Moreover, they were already hardened by life, so they should have been able to endure stress more easily.

Then scientists began to select mongrels. They were settled in research centers. We tried to provide them with an ideal life - they fed them well, pampered them with treats, played, and walked. Thus, four-legged animals became real members of the scientific team. Chief rocket designer - S.P. Korolev loved them very much, so he tried to minimize the negative consequences of the experiments. However, it was not without losses.

On the first flight

In the first flights, the rockets reached the upper layers of the atmosphere, and then the part where the passengers were was separated and returned to the ground with the help of parachutes.

So on July 22, 1951, Gypsy and Desik flew for the first time. When the rocket with the brave dogs reached an altitude of 100 km, the compartment with passengers became detached and began to fall quickly. But the dogs managed to survive thanks to parachutes that opened 7 km from the ground. Thus, the first suborbital flight in human history lasted only 20 minutes.

The gypsy did not rise in height anymore, but Desik had one more flight - together with the dog Fox. Unfortunately, it ended tragically - the parachute did not work, and the compartment with the animals crashed on the ground.

After this, experimental takeoffs to the upper atmosphere continued. The next victims of the heights were the furry cosmonauts Chizhik and Mishka. Their first trip was successful, but on August 28, their second flight became their last.

Expanding horizons

Gradually, scientists have perfected a way to return furry astronauts back to earth. Instead of descending in a special compartment, passengers were now in a personal space suit. In 1954, Ryzhik and Lisa-2 first tried the new method, and everything went well.

For three years, researchers continued to conduct flights to altitudes of up to 100 km. But since 1957 they moved to a new level - orbital flights. This marked the beginning of the space age.

In October 1957, an event of global significance occurred - the first Earth satellite was launched into space. And a month later, the world was shocked by an even more grandiose event - dogs in space.

Legendary Laika

The most outstanding mongrel in history was destined to be a friendly dog ​​named Laika. She became the first living creature to travel into outer space.

The dog was one of the favorites in the team of scientists. However, science treated her extremely cruelly.

In November 1957, the leadership of the USSR gave the order to launch a space rocket with a mongrel on board. At the same time, the device was significantly unfinished - it did not have a system for returning the passenger back. So, the legendary Laika went into space without a chance to return. This decision was very difficult for the team of scientists.

The dog was seen off with all honors. It is known that the satellite with Laika on board completed approximately two and a half thousand revolutions around the Earth, and then burned up in dense atmospheric layers.

For a long time, the Soviet Union hid the real cause of Laika’s death. According to the official version, she did not die in flight. She was euthanized after returning to Earth. However, such a statement provoked a wave of indignation not only among citizens of the Soviet Union, but also abroad. All over the world, protests began to be held in support of animals. Some Western social activists even proposed sending not a dog into space, but Khrushchev.

Triumph Belka and Strelka

After the Laika incident, rocket launches with dogs were suspended for several years. Scientists devoted this time to improving the rocket system. In 1960, they developed the Vostok rocket and space installation; a year later, the first man, Yuri Gagarin, flew into space on a similar one.

But that was later, and first the Vostok system was tested by the inquisitive Belka and Strelka. They became the first astronaut dogs to orbit our planet, return home, and then live happily ever after.

These two were actively prepared for the flight. The four-legged animals sat in vibration stands and centrifuges; they underwent operations, installing sensors to record their heart rate.

At the moment of takeoff, Belka and Strelka let out a loud bark. Scientists, although not superstitious people, took this as a good sign. Since Laika howled pitifully during her start.

Belka and Strelka spent 15 hours and 44 minutes in space. On Earth they were greeted with a real holiday. They returned alive, unharmed, healthy and quite vigorous. The dogs became real favorites of the public - everyone wanted to pet them and take photos.

Both mongrels lived long lives. Strelka gave birth twice. Each of her puppies had a special place.

Strelka's puppy, Fluff, became a pet for Jacqueline Kennedy. Nikita Khrushchev personally asked for it as a desired gift.

For statistics

60 dogs were involved in the tests, 18 died. Over 9 years of experiments, rockets were launched 29 times. 15 mongrels flew two or more times. The last flight of a dog into space took place in 1966.

Yes. After a quick study of blog search and Russian pedivics, it turned out that the story of “phantom cosmonauts” or at least hysterics about Americans on the Moon (my personal opinion - they flew, of course) is known to every second person, but to name at least a dozen dogs with which it all started, under power to very few. Nevertheless, the history of the first space squad is amazing, and, I think, is of interest to many.

The beautiful Belka and Strelka were not the first, of course. For some reason, the lesser-known Laika was not the first, whose fate posed a difficult problem for parents of the Soviet period: how to explain to children what happened to the dog? The history of Soviet canine cosmonautics began in the post-war years, with the launch of the medical-biological space program.

The first living creature smarter than a fly was sent into the stratosphere by the Americans back in the late forties, these were rhesus monkeys, and these launches usually ended tragically. Yuri Nikulin told how, around the same time, the famous monkey trainer Capellini performed at the circus on Tsvetnoy. After one of his speeches, people with a stamp of secrecy on their faces called him aside and talked for a long time about training monkeys. It turned out that all the fantastic tricks of his charges are the result of a very long and difficult training. Even to train the monkeys in advance to receive injections in the event of a sudden illness, it took several months. In addition, they do not tolerate stressful situations very well: once at the port, one of the trainer’s monkeys died of horror after hearing the loud whistle of the ship. As a result of the conversation, it was decided to abandon the monkeys and go their own way. The conditions for selecting animals were difficult: a small mammal was required, friendly to people, but not pampered by home education; easy to train, patient, friendly, and at the same time not losing consciousness from loud noise, vibration and other stress factors. And, it is desirable that domestic physiology has sufficient experience in working with such animals. In addition, the beast must be charming - one of them will become an all-planetary hero.

It was simply impossible to find anything more successful than mongrels from the Moscow region.

Now it’s funny to imagine stern intelligence officers who lured dogs into doorways and chose the healthiest and friendliest ones; those of suitable size were loaded into a car and taken away in an unknown direction. At the time, people preferred not to ask questions about such strange manipulations. The “unknown direction” ended in the backyard of the Dynamo stadium, in the former Mauritania Hotel, whose mansion then belonged to the Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine. All experiments were strictly classified. The dogs, however, did not sign a non-disclosure agreement, and tried to sneak away to visit the institute’s employees, where they were more interested in women and food, and not in space flights. In total, there were 32 tailed cosmonauts in the first space detachment.

The dogs were taught to follow commands, wear clothes, were accustomed to special trays resembling the living compartment of a rocket, and to endure overloads, vibrations and noise. Sensors were implanted, and the carotid artery was brought out into a separate skin flap to make it easier to take readings. Already at this stage it became clear that mongrels were the best choice: they treated all training and experiments completely calmly.

The first launch of dogs into a suborbital flight took place on July 22, 1951 at the Kapustin Yar training ground, ten minutes before dawn. The R-2A geophysical rocket with cosmonauts Dezik and Tsygan was planned to be raised to a height of 110 kilometers. Then the engine turns off, and the rocket goes into space by inertia. The head part with the animals separates and begins to free fall to the ground. At an altitude of 7 km, her parachute opened. The plan seemed fantastic to doctors, but chief designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev knew about similar American experiments. It was decided to run the dogs in pairs, because the reaction of one animal could be purely individual. Desik and Gypsy were considered the calmest and most trained in the group. The head of the medical program, Vladimir Ivanovich Yazdovsky, personally placed it in the capsule. From his memoirs:
- An hour before the launch, mechanic Voronkov and I climb the stairs to the upper platform of the rocket, opposite the entrance hatch of the pressurized cabin. All operations at the top, before the start, were my responsibility to deal with at the request of Sergei Pavlovich. At his suggestion, the decision of the State Commission stated: “The final equipment and checks before the start are entrusted personally to V.I. Yazdovsky.” We always tried to check and test each lock ourselves, not because we didn’t trust others, it’s just calmer this way.

The rocket rose to a height of 87 kilometers 700 meters, after 15 minutes the parachute smoothly descended near the launch pad. By order of Korolev, only doctors were to arrive at the landing site first, but high-ranking officials from various ministries and academies agreed with this and were the first to break this rule. The first major victory of domestic space medicine took place simultaneously with the shouts of those who surrounded the capsule: “Alive! Alive! They bark!...” The dogs taken out of the capsule ran and fawned over the doctors. Everyone was happy, and Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was the most happy.

Institute employee Alexander Dmitrievich Seryapin, who worked with the dogs at the training ground, said that when the dogs were released from the cabin, everyone was surprised when a seemingly respectable man, the chief designer, Korolev, grabbed either Dezik or Gypsy, and joyfully ran around with him capsules. He personally took the dogs to the enclosure, to which, despite the protests of doctors who were studying the consequences of the flight, a real pilgrimage immediately began. The next day, the entire training ground celebrated their success with a picnic, with barbecue and two kegs of beer.

Both Desik and Gypsy endured the stress and overload remarkably well - no deviations in health or behavior were noticed.

Desik ascended to the stratosphere again a week later together with his new partner Lisa. At first the tests went well, but... the observers never saw the white canopy of the parachute in the sky. The system did not work, and the cabin with the dogs crashed. Thus opened the account of the first victims of astronautics...

Immediately after the tragedy, the first surviving cosmonaut, Gypsy, was removed from the program. He was taken in by the Chairman of the State Commission, Academician Blagonravov, with whom he lived a long, satisfying and very prolific life - his space puppies were then given as medals for special merits.

Until the spring of 1961, 29 more launches were carried out in the suborbital flight program. 10 dogs died. The parachute systems failed, the life support system failed, the cabins were depressurized, and each disaster was perceived by the employees as a personal tragedy. They could no longer treat the dogs as experimental material. Almost every medic in the squad had his own personal favorites, it was incredibly difficult to see their death, even decades later they remember their losses with tears in their eyes, but this stage had to be passed. Any disaster changed the further test plan, making flights safer not only for dogs, but also for humans.

Some watchdogs flew two, three, even four times, and, surprisingly, experienced testers completely calmly endured the preparation for repeated launches, although it would seem that they should have remembered the unpleasant sensations after the first flight. The Brave dog got its nickname precisely after its fourth successful launch.

In the summer of 1954, a new stage of the program opened: in Tomilin, near Moscow, dogs were trained to test emergency evacuation systems into open airless space. The astronauts' canvas harness was replaced with a spacesuit with a parachute, and the dogs Ryzhik and Fox (the second) were the first to try it. It was a flight incomparable in complexity to the previous ones. At an altitude of approximately 90 km (I don’t have exact data), the catapult pushed the Fox in a dog suit into open airless space. A specially designed parachute opened, working where there was nothing for the canopy to rest on. Ryzhik continued to fall along with the cabin to an altitude of 45 km, where they were “shot.” The spacesuit, accelerated by the fall almost to the speed of sound, slowed down the parachute already at an altitude of seven kilometers. Even now, when you know the result of the experiment, it is a little creepy to watch the video recording of that flight, where dogs, protected only by a spacesuit, were thrown into nowhere.

The dogs handled both landings flawlessly. Scientists rejoiced at the return of their charges, and the astronauts rejoiced at the simple earthly doctor’s sausage.

Ryzhik died two weeks later. The fox, Seryapin’s personal favorite, who faithfully guarded him during joint walks, flew the next time in February 1955. During takeoff, the rocket veered to the side, the stabilization rudders acted too sharply, and the dog was thrown out of the cockpit by inertia. Seryapin buried her in the steppe, although this was not allowed: there were no funeral rituals...

In addition to tragedies, downright funny cases also happened to the “first detachment”. During one of the launches in 1951, only dogs from the test crew were at the test site: the rest were in Moscow preparing for the next stage of testing. When the laboratory technician took the dogs for a walk on the eve of the flight, the dog named Bold broke off his leash and ran off into the steppe. The laboratory assistant, in horror, tried to catch up or lure the fugitive, but the dog was blown away by the wind. When they were about to report to the Queen, having prepared their confession, someone came up with an idea: there were a bunch of mongrels hovering around the soldiers’ canteen all the time! If only they could find something similar in color and size, they could make it into a rocket. They found a suitable dog, put sensors on it and actually promoted it from a table feeder to an astronaut, awarding it with the nickname ZIB - Replacement for the Disappearing Bobik. In the confusion, they didn’t even immediately notice that the dog was, in fact, still a puppy. He endured the manipulations with the application of sensors surprisingly calmly, and although he fussed more during the flight than his experienced partner, having received roar, overloads and weightlessness to the fullest extent, he endured the experiment well. The dogs landed safely, and Korolev was very surprised to see an unfamiliar dog in the capsule. He was told about the substitution, and in official reports ZIB became a pre-selected but untrained participant in the program, who was specially sent on a flight to test the reaction of an untrained dog.

And Smely returned from AWOL after the launch... ZIB no longer participated in further flights: Blagonravov also took him to his place.

In November 1954, during one of the ejection tests, an emergency situation arose: the parachute with the dog Malyshka was blown to the side by the wind, and search engines in the intended area simply did not find it. It turned out that the parachute was cut off and dragged away by a local shepherd, and the spacesuit itself was difficult to see behind the bumps. The dog, which had been lying there for more than a day, first rushed to relieve itself...

At the beginning of 1956, work began on a new stage of the project - orbital flight. It was necessary to develop a cabin and life support systems in which the animal could live for up to thirty days. Male astronauts temporarily faded into the background: the “space toilet” turned out to be easier to make for girls. A tube was connected to the back of the overalls, and all waste was sucked into a bag with special, highly absorbent grass. For feeding, a special automatic conveyor was created, which twice a day dispensed a new portion of dough-like food with the required amount of liquid. By that time the dogs had already climbed to a height of 450 km. It was already clear that overload, vibration and noise for dogs were within tolerable limits, but the long-term effects of weightlessness had not yet been studied. For this, an orbital flight was required.

On October 4, 1957, as is known, the first artificial Earth satellite was launched. Few people know that we could be the first to launch into orbit not a metal ball with antennae, but a laboratory ship with a dog on board. The first was the soulless PS-1 (“the simplest satellite-1,” oddly enough), but even then it was clear that the second one would fly into orbit was a dog. This launch was planned to be declassified, the project participants felt unprecedented euphoria between the two historical orbital launches, new wonderful specialists were constantly joining the work, whom Korolev knew how to gather around himself. He later said that this month was the happiest in his life: the dreams of a cosmic romantic, which had recently seemed crazy, escaped beyond the stratosphere. There was only one “but” that stood in the way: Khrushchev demanded that the dog be launched into orbit as quickly as possible, and systems for returning the capsule to Earth were then just being developed. There were several contenders for the orbital flight, and everyone understood that the one whose name would go down in history would not return home.

At first they chose Albina, who had already flown twice, but they took pity on her: she had funny puppies at that time. In the end we settled on Laika. Albina became her backup, and the third contender, Mukha, was used to test life support systems on Earth.

Laika was a nice little dog,” recalls Yazdovsky, “quiet, very calm. Before leaving for the cosmodrome, I once brought it home and showed it to the children. They played with her. I wanted to do something nice for the dog. After all, she had very little time to live. Now, after so many years, Laika’s flight looks very modest, but this is a historical event. And I want to name the people who prepared Laika for flight, who, together with thousands of other people, wrote the first pages of the history of practical astronautics. These names can be found in special magazines and books, but most people have never heard of them. But this is unfair, you will agree. So, Laika was prepared for the flight by: Oleg Gazenko, Abram Genin, Alexander Seryapin, Armen Gyurjian, Natalia Kozakova, Igor Balakhovsky.

Exactly seven days after the start, the dog was supposed to die: the designers came up with a syringe that would give her a lethal injection. In fact, everything turned out much worse. At first, due to problems, the rocket with the dog already placed in it stood in the November frost for three days. By order of Korolev, the cabin was heated with warm air from a hose. Shortly before the start, Yazdovsky managed to persuade Korolev to depressurize the container for a minute, and Seryapin gave Laika water to drink. For some reason, everyone thought that the dog was thirsty. Simple earthly water. On November 3, Laika launched from the new Tyuratam test site, which would later be called Baikonur, and entered orbit.

News agencies around the world carried news about the dog’s well-being for several more days. At first, she really felt well in orbit; the doctors received valuable information that long-term weightlessness does not affect the performance of the heart and breathing. For ordinary people it was a victory. For doctors it is also a personal tragedy. The satellite with the dog was on the sunny side longer than the estimated time, and after just a few orbits around the Earth, Laika died from overheating. But throughout the entire billing week, reports were compiled for the media about the dog’s remarkable well-being. According to Oleg Georgievich Gazenko, then we not only could not return the satellite home, but also did not work out the heat removal systems. The two small fans in the cabin were useless.

The second Soviet satellite with a dead dog burned up in the atmosphere only in the spring of 1958. Seryapin said that they were required to reproduce the conditions in Laika’s cabin later, in the laboratory, of which two more tailed testers became victims...

After this flight, two important decisions were made: firstly, to have a man in orbit in the coming years. Secondly, all unsuccessful launches with dogs should be classified.

Three years later, the dogs Fox and Chaika were supposed to go into orbit on the next satellite ship.
Designer Boris Evseevich Chertok says:
- The Queen really liked the affectionate red Fox. At the MIK, doctors were preparing to try it on in the ejection capsule of the descent module. With engineer Shevelev, we discussed another note on interfacing the electrical circuits of the “dog” container of the catapult and the descent vehicle. The fox did not react at all to our arguments and the general turmoil of the test. Korolev approached. I was about to report, but he waved me off, without asking the doctors, he took Chanterelle in his arms. She clung to him trustingly. The joint venture carefully stroked the dog and, without being embarrassed by those around him, said: “I really want you to come back.” Korolev’s face was unusually sad. He held it for a few more seconds, then handed it to someone in a white coat and, without looking back, slowly walked into the noisy hall of the MIK.
Over the years of working together, Korolev and I have been in the most difficult life situations many times. Depending on the circumstances, I experienced different, sometimes contradictory, feelings towards him. My memory retains this episode of a hot day in July 1960. Korolev strokes Chanterelle, and for the first time I feel such a feeling of pity for him that a lump comes to my throat.
Or maybe it was a premonition.

On July 28, 1960, in the 19th second of flight, the Vostok 8K72 rocket with Lisichka and Chaika crashed when the first stage of the carrier crashed. For Korolev, this became a personal tragedy and an incentive to develop a system for rescuing the descent vehicle directly from the launch. It will still save the lives of our cosmonauts. The accident was not reported in the press.

In general, they were planned to be launched on the 17th, but the main oxygen valve on the carrier was rejected and the launch had to be delayed. On August 19 at 15 hours 44 minutes 06 seconds the carrier with the ship 1K No. 2 took off. It was a real Noah's Ark: in addition to dogs, it lifted into orbit rats, laboratory mice, fruit flies, plant seeds (including - quietly, don't laugh - corn) and even samples of human tissue. During the 22-hour flight, the ship made 18 orbits around the Earth, and landed safely the next morning. This meant that the path to space for man was open. In this regard, Oleg Gazenko decided to do the unheard of: without approval from his superiors, he organized a press conference for his charges at TASS. Lyudmila Radkevich, an employee of his laboratory, says:

Oleg Georgievich and I were driving to a press conference in the old Pobeda, and stopped at a traffic light on Mayakovskaya. I sat in the back, and the dogs in their caftans were in my arms. And we heard applause: they applauded us from the cars standing nearby. That's when I felt that something really important had happened, if even strangers reacted like that...

Getting out of the car, in front of the assembled journalists, Lyudmila tripped on the threshold with her heel and fell along with the dogs in her arms. The French journalists helping her up gallantly congratulated the dogs on “another soft landing.” And in the evening, dogs and tired but happy doctors were shown on television.

The popularity of the first returning female orbital cosmonauts was unheard of, and the fantastic charm of Belka and especially Strelka played an important role in this. During his visit to the United States, Khrushchev even promised to give Jacqueline Kennedy a puppy for one of the dogs. And he kept his promise: a year later, a mongrel from Moscow region, Pushinka, Strelka’s daughter, appeared in the White House. John Kennedy perfectly understood the significance of this gift, and really hoped not to be delayed in answering: just then he was informed that an American rocket was capable of lifting a person into space. He did not know that the Vostok, in which the dogs flew, was created for the flight of a Soviet cosmonaut.

Khrushchev felt that the Americans were already stepping on their heels, and demanded that Korolev launch a man into orbit as soon as possible. But Sergei Pavlovich stood his ground: the cosmonaut from the first cohort already undergoing training would fly only after two successful launches of dogs.

And he was right: the next launch on December 1, 1960 with Pchelka and Mushka ended in tragedy: the ship deviated from the calculated trajectory. There was a threat of the ship landing on foreign territory, and the automatic destruction system was activated. No one wanted to share state secrets...

The next flight on December 22 was also unsuccessful. Zhemchuzhina and Zhulka took their place on the ship. Due to an accident in the third stage, the descent module made an emergency landing in the Podkamennaya Tunguska area. Rescuers got to the snow-covered capsule only three days later; no one really believed that the dogs would survive in such a terrible frost. What was their joy when, while shoveling snow, they heard a dog barking from the capsule!.. All the mice, insects and plants died, but both dogs survived. After that, Oleg Georgievich took Zhulka to his place. She lived with him for another 12 years in full contentment.

In the spring, the streak of failures for the testers ended. Already on March 9 of the following year, an exact model of the future human flight was made by a ship with Chernushka and a dummy Ivan Ivanovich, dressed in the same orange spacesuit in which Gagarin would later fly. On March 25, the same dress rehearsal for the first human flight was successfully carried out by Zvezdochka, also with Ivan Ivanovich. The dog was originally called Luck, but out of superstition, her name was changed.

At the moment of its landing, Korolev already knew the name of the planet’s first cosmonaut.
Gagarin will make a full orbit and return to Earth amid fanfare in 18 days...

Experiment participant Viktor Borisovich Malkin says:
- Everyone who survived was taken care of like the apple of their eye and tried to be placed in good hands. For example, Linda, a participant in vertical launches, looked after our garage after retiring. The drivers simply adored her! Chernushka was stuffed in memory of her services (it still stands at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems). But Vladimir Ivanovich Yazdovsky gave Luck-Star to the Moscow Zoo for propaganda purposes so that visitors could see and rejoice. I remember there was a huge poster: “Vasya the bear cub, Petya the wolf cub and Zvezdochka the dog - participant in the flight around the Earth.”

I never thought that they were familiar with the works of Newton, and in particular with the law of universal gravitation. I found out about this while watching a film about one of the flights. There was an unscrewed nut in the compartment, and in zero gravity it began to fly. You should have seen how surprised the dog looked! I still couldn’t understand why the nut didn’t fall off. Since then, I am ready to bet that the laws of nature are familiar to dogs. But I don’t think they felt any fear. At least our space ones...

The “dog” program did not end on Gagarin’s flight. In February-March 1966, the dogs Veterok and Ugolek spent 22 days in orbit of the artificial Earth satellite Kosmos-110. The dogs endured such a long flight very poorly, but recovered successfully and gave birth to healthy offspring. The cosmonauts of the Salyut station will break their record only in five years. By the way, Coal was originally called Snowball, but before the launch his name was changed to better suit the dark suit. His partner before the flight was generally known as Bzdunok because of the corresponding powerful abilities of the body. It was not appropriate for a Soviet space dog to have such a name, and the nickname was edited, even though everyone knew what kind of “breeze” it was... The dog in some way predetermined the fate of the Bulgarian cosmonaut Kakalov, who was eventually allowed into space, but was renamed just in case in Ivanova.

In total, forty-eight dogs took part in the Dogagarin flights.
Twenty of them died.

Space has long attracted man, attracted the eye, and excited the imagination of scientists. People have long wanted to know what lies beyond our planet. And it is very symbolic that the first to discover this secret were not people, but dogs, our devoted, smart and faithful friends.

Everyone knows that dogs were the first to go into space, but before the flight these four-legged cosmonauts underwent strict selection and training, they were accustomed to weightlessness and overloads.

Man has always been attracted to space, but the risk of flight was very high, so it was decided to send dogs on a test flight. They were selected according to strict criteria. These had to be young individuals no older than 6 years old, healthy, resistant to environmental influences, with a calm, docile character. Light-colored dogs were preferred because they were easier to see on monitors.

As a result, purebred dogs turned out to be unsuitable for flying, and it was the mongrels that were suitable, which were even selected from kennels and on the streets.

The honor of going on the first flight went to two dogs named Desik and Gypsy. This flight took place on July 22, 1951 at the Kapustin Yar cosmodrome. When the rocket rose to 100 kilometers, the compartment with the dogs detached and flew to the ground. At an altitude of 7 kilometers, the parachute opened and the dogs landed safely. Academician Korolev personally greeted the dogs with great joy, because a safe flight meant further continuation of the research. Academician Blagonravov adopted the gypsy, but the dog Desik continued his career. Unfortunately, on the next flight, which took place a week later, the parachute did not open and the capsule with the dogs crashed.

Read also: How to cope with the death of your beloved dog? Advice for adults and parents of children

Meanwhile, space exploration did not stop; on August 15, 1951, Mishka and Chizhik took part in the flight, and on August 19, Ryzhik and Smely took part. Unfortunately, there have also been tragedies, for example, on August 28, Mishka and Chizhik died during their second flight. A flight was also planned in September, but it almost failed due to the escape of the main pilot, the dog Bold. It was decided to replace the dog, and as a result, an unprepared dog that lived near the dining room flew into space with the dog Neputev. Despite everything, the flight was successful, and the dog was given the name ZIB (short for “Spare Disappearing Bobik”).

New perspectives

In 1954, for the first time, a method of ejecting dogs not in a compartment, but in an individual space suit was implemented, successfully tested on July 26 on the dogs Ryzhik and Fox-2. After this, scientists gradually switched to orbital flights.

Space Age

The first earth satellite was launched in 1957, on October 4, and with this significant event the era of rapid space exploration began. And on November 3, a satellite with the dog Laika was launched into orbit. Unfortunately, the satellite and its passenger burned up in flight through the dense layers of the atmosphere.

Space heroes – Belka and Strelka

Only two years later the experiments continued. On August 19, 1960, a rocket with dogs, mice, two white rats, and several species of insects, plants, and mushrooms on board went into orbit. The spacecraft completed 17 revolutions around the Earth and remained in orbit for more than a day.

Read also: Why the Chihuahua has its tail between its legs: we understand the main reasons

The legendary Belka and Strelka took part in this flight, although Chaika and Chanterelle, who tragically died a little earlier during an unsuccessful flight, were supposed to fly instead.

Belka and Strelka became celebrities, the whole world talked about them, because these two mongrel dogs were the first to go into orbit and return alive. By the way, both lived to old age.

For the first human flight, it was necessary to make sure that the successful flight of Belka and Strelka was not a pure coincidence. Two successful flights were carried out, but this was followed by four more attempts to repeat the launch of a rocket with animals into orbit, which ended tragically.

Starry flight of the stars

March 1961 was marked by two successful launches. The dog Chernushka, accompanied by “Ivan Tsarevich” (this is the name given to the mannequin), went into orbit on March 9, and successfully returned to earth. After this, on March 25, the “Ivan Tsarevich” dummy flew with the dog Zvezdochka.

As a result, human travel into space became possible. And on April 12, the Vostok spacecraft finally flew into orbit with Lieutenant Yuri Gagarin on board.

Thus, over 9 years, 29 launches were carried out, and 18 dogs died during the entire experiment. At least 30 dogs took part in the flights, most of them flew several times.

Dogs were sent into space even after human flight, already in 1966, on February 22. The dogs Veterok and Ugolek took part in the flight; they spent almost three weeks in orbit and landed safely on Earth.

The first manned space flight took place on April 12, 1961. They still teach about this in school. Less well known are other heroes - dogs who fearlessly paved the way for the exploration of outer space. Sometimes for this they sacrificed their health, and sometimes their lives.

Most space tests involving dogs were carried out in the 50-60s of the last century. The intensity of such experiments at that time was enormous, since they were talking about the primacy of man in space. Most of the cosmonaut dogs were launched in aircraft of the USSR and China.

Before humanity could cross the boundary between the upper atmosphere and space, it was decided that animals would be the pioneers. Two candidate species were selected: dogs and monkeys.

During the selection period, scientists found that monkeys are not so successful in training and learning, their capricious nature often manifests itself, they often behave restlessly and are unpredictable in their actions. The dogs, on the contrary, willingly interacted with the researchers and were less susceptible to stress.

Scientists emphasized that the dogs should be ordinary mongrels who were picked up for research simply on the street. This was explained by the fact that they had already undergone natural selection, and therefore were endowed with excellent physical characteristics.

Thoroughbred representatives were significantly inferior in the following characteristics:

• excellent immunity and regenerative reserve of the body;
• ingenuity and learning ability;
• unpretentiousness in nutrition and excellent digestion;
• devotion and desire to please the person.

Special requirements were applied to physical parameters:

• height no higher than 35 cm and weight up to 6 kg - this was required based on the size of the cabins in the rockets;
• short hair – necessary for tightly attaching sensors to the body;
• females - it was easier for them to develop a urine drainage system in space;
• age - from 2 to 6 years;
• white coat color - for the most advantageous appearance on television.

Animals were launched into space in pairs to ensure average results.

Geophysical rockets

Research on launching dogs into space on this type of aircraft was carried out in three stages:

• Height up to 100 km. The rocket's speed was 4.2 thousand km/h, while the acceleration was enormous and the overload reached 5.5 units. The animals were tied with special straps in trays. After reaching the maximum height, the head compartment with the dogs was lowered to the ground by parachute. Often experiments ended in minor injuries to animals, and several times they resulted in death.
• Height up to 110 km. The animals ejected in spacesuits using parachutes and sometimes one of the two companions returned, and sometimes everything went well. The duration of such flights did not exceed 20 minutes.
• Altitude up to 450 km. At this stage, the animals landed without ejection, in the head compartment of the rocket. Sometimes animals of other species (rabbits, rats, mice) joined the dogs. On one flight, the animals were under general anesthesia.

Test progress

Flight data was strictly classified. The animals were given pseudonyms, so for a long time there was confusion in information about the participants.

Dogs were paired up based on mental compatibility and comfort of interaction, so it was impossible to replace partners. One day, a flight was in jeopardy because one dog, who was supposed to fly the next day, ran away during an evening walk. However, he returned the next morning and began to lick people's hands with a guilty look. The flight took place.

The scientists treated the animals very warmly: despite the fact that the food was balanced and strictly coordinated, everyone tried to quietly bring something tasty to their pet from home. Even Korolev, who supervised the progress of all tests, training and experiments and advocated for the implementation of prohibitions, could not resist the temptation and fed the pets. He perceived the injuries and loss of each dog very painfully, not only from the point of view of failures in the promotion of astronautics, but also as a personal guilt towards his devoted animals. Many pets, after completing their mission, were taken home by employees of the testing center.

Pioneer

The first dog to go into orbit was two-year-old Laika. The employees of the testing center gave her this nickname because she barked often and loudly. Her real nickname was Kudryavka. Before flying into space, the animal was surgically implanted with breathing sensors and a pulse sensor. She was gradually accustomed to a place in the cabin so that she felt familiar there. To do this, she spent a little time every day in the compartment where she would be located after takeoff.

Before the start, Laika was dressed in a special jumpsuit, which was attached with wires to the equipment. The length of the wires was enough for her to change her body position: freely stand up, sit down and lie down.

On November 3, 1957, Laika was launched into space. It was initially planned that its flight would continue for a week, but the animal died after completing 4 orbits around the Earth in 6-7 hours. The cause of death was overheating due to a design error. After this, the spacecraft continued to orbit the planet until April 1958, after which it burned up in the upper atmosphere.

Information about Laika’s death was kept silent, news about her condition was broadcast for another week, and then the media announced that the dog had been euthanized. This news caused a wide resonance and was received sadly by the Western media.

The next step on the path to space exploration was the task of successfully returning living beings to earth. The difficulty was the long stay of animals in a small space. Although the flight should last about a day, the dogs were prepared for an eight-day stay in orbit.

There were many contenders for the sensational stage of space research, but Belka and Strelka were the clear favorites. The squirrel was very active and took the lead during all tasks. Strelka, on the contrary, showed extreme restraint, but was very affectionate and friendly.

The flight took place on August 19, 1960. At first, after entering orbit, the animals had an excess of pulse and respiration, but in a short time all indicators returned to normal. For the first time, television tracking was provided, so scientists on Earth could receive video from a ship in space.

Belka and Strelka quickly returned to normal in space, but at a certain moment Belka’s condition worsened. She began to feel nauseous and became restless. After landing, tests showed that the animals were stressed, but in a short time the condition completely stabilized.

The dogs immediately became stars, their photos and videos spread all over the world. The first animals to successfully return from space continued to live in the research center. A few months after the space trip, Strelka became the mother of six strong puppies.

Both dogs lived to a ripe old age while in the care of the state.

Their flight was the last step on the path of man into space. But the flying dogs didn’t stop there. They are still being carried out now, but with new neighbors on board - human cosmonauts. It is thanks to their presence that it is possible to study and monitor the biochemistry, genetics, and cytology of living organisms in space conditions.