How long have Squirrel and Strelka been in space? Belka and Strelka are the first cosmonauts. The most famous dogs

Belka and Strelka - famous dogs-cosmonauts. They orbited our planet seventeen times and became the first animals to survive an orbital flight on a spacecraft. Their safe return made it possible to work out a system for ensuring the life and safety of future human pilots. This journey opened the way for man into space.

Animals in space

Creating your own space rockets, designer Korolev could not predict the behavior of living beings under powerful loads in such flights. Necessary information could give tests. Choice fell on the monkeys. The primates resisted and often behaved unpredictably. Developed consciousness sensed danger. Attempts to send them into space proved hopeless.

Selection of candidates

Then dogs became participants in the experiments. Animals were picked up on the streets. Outbred yard dogs are unpretentious and aimed at survival in difficult conditions.

The selection took into account other features:

• Age - from 2 to 6 years. During this period the dog has good health and is resistant to overloads.
• Height - up to 35 centimeters. Weight - up to 7 kilograms. An animal with such parameters could easily fit into a space capsule.
• Light coat color. It stood out comfortably on work tracking monitors.
• Future cosmonauts had to have patient nature and easy to get in touch with.

Doctors chose males reluctantly. Their physiological characteristics they were not allowed to comfortably “go to the toilet” in a special sewage suit.

Last but not least was the dog's attractive face. If the tests were successful, she was supposed to become a world star, the subject of cameras and the heroine of films.

Preparing for the flight

The selected dogs were trained for several months at a medical base in Moscow.

The animals got used to wearing sensors and a special suit. Food was served by automatic feeding machines. The jelly-like mass provided all the animals' needs for food and water.

They were taught to be long time in a small confined space. A metal box was created that replicated the shape and volume of the ship's capsule. The dogs were locked inside for several hours, simulating the noise and stress of flight.

The training took place on R-1B and R-1 V missiles. The dogs were tied in a cabin and sent to an altitude of 100 kilometers. Having reached a certain point, the cabin was lowered by parachute, and the rockets fell back.

First tests

On July 22, 1951, a rocket was launched with two dogs on board - Gypsy and Desik. Several minutes of flight ended with the successful landing of the container with animals by parachute. The dogs tolerated physical stress and weightlessness well. The gypsy scratched his stomach and did not participate in the experiments anymore.

A week later, Lisa and Desik set off on a new flight. Upon returning, the parachute of the compartment did not open and the animals died. This prompted Korolev to develop an ejection system in emergency situations. In 1954, rockets with animals began to fly to an altitude of 110 kilometers, and in 1957 - up to 450 kilometers.

The tests took place in different ways. Dogs could be ejected without oxygen masks. Spacesuits were made for this purpose. Sometimes rats, mice and rabbits were sent into flight with them, untrained dogs and anesthesia were used. Many have flown more than once. Not all experiments ended successfully.

The first dog to orbit the Earth was Laika. Her fate was sad. She died from overheating due to design errors in the life support systems on the spaceship. They did not return the rocket. It cruised around the planet for several months and then burned out.

On July 28, 1960, a ship carrying Chaika and Chanterelle was launched into low-Earth orbit. The nineteenth second of flight became decisive. The side block at the first stage collapsed. The rocket exploded and fell. The animals died. Their backups in case of an accident were Belka and Strelka.

Flight of famous dogs into space

The dogs met all the requirements. They had good health and coped well with any load during training. Outbred Belka stood out for his activity and sociability, and behaved like a true leader. Spotted Arrow remained withdrawn and timid. But they both complemented each other perfectly.

Launch date spaceship from the Baikonur Cosmodrome was scheduled for August 19, 1960. At 11:44 a.m. the rocket took off from the ground with two dogs, mice, plants and insects. She made 17 orbits around our planet and returned safely.

Sputnik 5 was the prototype of the Vostok spacecraft, which later sent a man into orbit. It was equipped with an automatic landing system, a catapult, and various scientific equipment. Efficient system vital activity controlled the temperature, humidity and pressure in the cabin.

At the very beginning of the flight, the dogs' heart rate increased, but after an hour it returned to normal. The machines provided the animals with food and water twice a day. They ate with great appetite, not paying attention to the overload.

The air regeneration device absorbed carbon dioxide and released the required amount of oxygen.

Television surveillance was organized in the compartment. Special sensors on animals recorded their reaction to weightlessness. The data obtained allowed scientists to analyze the physiological and biochemical processes in the body that occur during flight.

Examination of dogs after landing did not reveal any health problems in them. Stress affected their behavior during the test in different ways. Strelka did not panic and behaved calmly. On the fourth turn, the squirrel began to bark and rush around in order to escape from the fastenings. This meant that the animal’s health had worsened. This behavior led the organizers of the experiment to decide on a single-orbit flight for humans.

In the history of the flight of dogs and the subsequent study of animal behavior in space, there are many interesting facts:

In 25 hours, brave dogs Strelka and Belka in space covered 700 thousand kilometers. They returned unharmed and proved that such a journey does not pose a danger to a living organism. In less than a year, Yuri Gagarin will repeat their path and become the first person to orbit the Earth.

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TASS-DOSSIER /Inna Klimacheva/. To prepare for manned space flights, experimental flights involving dogs were conducted in the Soviet Union. In 1949, by decisions of the presidiums of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Academy medical sciences The USSR approved the scientific doctrine of space biology and medicine, which provided for experimental flights of animals into space.

Not selected for the experiment purebred dogs, and mongrels, because they are more hardy and unpretentious. Animals weighing no more than 6 kg and height (at the withers) no higher than 35 cm were selected for flights. The dogs were trained in special laboratory Research Institute of Aviation Medicine (NII AM) of the Air Force of the USSR Ministry of Defense (now the State Research Testing Institute military medicine Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, GNIIII VM; Moscow).

From July 1951 to June 1960 from the Kapustin Yar training ground in Astrakhan region launches into the stratosphere were carried out geophysical rockets(R-1B, R-1V, R-1D, R-1E, R-2A, R-5A developed by Sergei Korolev, chief designer of OKB-1, now RSC Energia named after S.P. Korolev) with dogs on board. The first took place on July 22, 1951: the R-1B rocket lifted a special pressurized cabin with dogs named Dezik and Gypsy to a height of 110 kilometers, the animals landed safely by parachute. A total of 29 such flights were carried out (21 successfully). 36 dogs took part in them (some flew several times), of which 15 died.

The first living creature to travel into space was the dog Laika. Having launched on November 3, 1957 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the second artificial satellite of the Earth (Sputnik 2), she spent several hours in weightlessness. She died in orbit from suffocation and heat due to the heating of the spacecraft, since at that time the technologies for soft descent of vehicles to Earth had not yet been developed.

The first dogs to be in orbit and return safely to Earth were Belka and Strelka. On August 19, 1960, the animals launched from Baikonur on a satellite ship (Sputnik 5), a prototype of the Vostok ship. It was on Vostok that on April 12, 1961, the first cosmonaut on the planet, Yuri Gagarin, flew into space. The dogs were placed in a special container in the ejection unit of the ship's cabin, and they were given red and green suits for the flight. They were in low-Earth orbit for 25 hours, making 17 orbits around the Earth. On August 20, TASS reported: “The satellite ship and the capsule with experimental animals that separated from it landed safely... The dogs Belka and Strelka feel good after the flight and landing.” To monitor them, a Seliger radio-television system with two television cameras was installed on board the ship, the image was recorded on film.

After the flight, the dogs lived in the NII AM enclosure. A few months later, Strelka gave birth to six puppies. One of them, by personal order of Nikita Khrushchev, was presented to the wife of US President John Kennedy, Jacqueline. Currently, stuffed Belka and Strelka are on display at the Moscow Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics. To mark the 50th anniversary of the flight of dogs, in March 2010, the cartoon "Belka and Strelka. Star Dogs" was released.

Later, the success of Belka and Strelka was consolidated by the successful flights of other dogs. However, there were two emergency launches, which led to the death of 4 animals.

Shortly before the launch of Yuri Gagarin, on March 25, 1961, a dog named Zvezdochka on the Vostok satellite completed the entire path that lay ahead of the first cosmonaut: takeoff, one orbit around the Earth and landing. After her safe return, the final decision was made to fly a man into space.

Total in space, within the framework of ongoing Soviet Union research, 9 dogs visited. The last ones were Veterok and Ugolek. Having launched on February 22, 1966 from Baikonur, they set a record for flight duration - they spent 22 days in orbit.

In memory of animals who died in scientific experiments, a granite column was erected in front of the Paris Society for the Protection of Dogs in 1958. Its top is crowned by a skyward satellite, from which Laika’s face peeks out. On the island of Crete (Greece), on the territory of the Homo Sapiens Museum, a monument to the dogs Laika, Belka and Strelka was erected. In Moscow, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the building of the GNIIII VM laboratory, where Laika was being prepared for flight (1997), and a monument to Laika was erected in front of the institute (2008). In Izhevsk in 2006, a monument to the dog Zvezdochka was unveiled.

The most famous flight of dogs into space. Two mongrels make 17 orbits around the Earth in just over a day. By doing this they are reported to be “paving the way for humanity.”

The total number of dog flights was 37. In 11 cases, the animals died. Belka and Strelka were backups for Chaika and Chanterelle, whose rocket exploded as soon as it took off. The Americans sent monkeys into space, but Soviet science is based on the experiments of Academician Pavlov and considers primates to be too restless. The dogs selected are small, about 6 kg in weight, outbred and stray: they are stronger and more unpretentious. Before the flight, they are accustomed to overloads and eating in zero gravity for months. Belka and Strelka are being monitored on television for the first time in orbit. The picture from the monitors is shot on film - there is no video recording yet. On the fifth orbit, Belka began to vomit, she was trying to free herself from the belts with which she was fastened. Although tests after the flight will not reveal any significant deviations, they will first decide to send a person on one orbit around the Earth.

Astronaut dogs are the country's favorites and world celebrities. The next dog carriage of 1960 will die. And in March 1961, two successful launches of rockets with quadrupeds will be carried out.

The mongrel Strelka, who conquered space in August 1960, gave birth in February.

Strelka has six puppies. The nursing dog is carefully examined by doctors - all indicators are normal, as if the dog had never flown anywhere. Khrushchev sent one puppy from Strelka’s offspring to the family of the US President and presented it to the First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy. Maternal well-being The arrows serve as proof of the harmlessness of space.

The country is waiting: the phrase “the first manned flight to the stars is just around the corner” has become commonplace.

And in April, Gagarin will fly into space and, according to legend, after landing he will joke: who am I - the first man or the last dog?

August 19 marks the 50th anniversary of the successful flight of the dogs Belka and Strelka into space on the prototype of the Vostok spacecraft. The study of the effects of rocket flight on the animal body began in the USSR in 1948 on the initiative of the scientist and designer Sergei Korolev.

The first squad of four-legged cosmonauts was created in 1951 and consisted of yard dogs. According to doctors, since such dogs are forced to fight for survival every day, are unpretentious and quickly get used to people, they were most suitable for the assigned tasks. Participated in the experiments small dogs weighing 6-7 kg due to the structural features of the ship’s cabin, reports RIA News".

It was decided to select females for the detachment, since it was easier for them to sew sewage clothing. The dogs were chosen to be light in color so that they could be seen better on television. They selected the most beautiful, slender and smart-faced ones.

Cosmonaut candidates underwent various special training: spinning in a centrifuge, testing on a vibration stand, ejection.

The first rocket with a dog on board took off on July 22, 1951 from the Kapustin Yar test site. In total, from July 1951 to September 1962, 29 dog flights took place into the stratosphere to an altitude of 100-150 km. Eight of them ended in the death of animals, causes fatal outcome there was depressurization of the cabin, failure of the parachute system, and problems with the life support system.

In early 1960, a re-entry spacecraft was developed. The first launch of such a ship was a failure. On August 19, 1960, the second spacecraft was successfully launched into Earth orbit. The launch took place from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 15:44. The weight of the satellite ship without the last stage of the launch vehicle was 4.6 tons. On board the spacecraft were Belka and Strelka, as well as mice, insects, plants, fungal cultures, seeds of corn, wheat, peas, onions, some types of microbes and other living ones creatures.

When returning to Earth, the descent vehicle was to be separated from the spacecraft before entering the dense layers of the atmosphere. The hermetic cabin housed containers with biological objects. On August 20, 1960, the lander with animals on board landed safely. The flight of Strelka and Belka lasted more than 25 hours. During this time, the satellite ship made 17 complete orbits around the Earth. The successful journey of Belka and Strelka proved the ability of living organisms to withstand all the factors of space flight.

The dogs, having returned to Earth, became real heroes, and a day later they even took part in a press conference held in the TASS building. A few days later, Soviet television showed footage of the flight of Belka and Strelka.

This flight into space was the only one in their lives; they did not participate in such experiments again. The dogs remained to live at the research institute. Belka and Strelka lived to see old age. Strelka left behind numerous offspring; one of her puppies, named Fluff, was given to the wife of US President Jacqueline Kennedy by personal order of Nikita Khrushchev.

In Russia their feat has not been forgotten. Thus, in the north of Moscow, a three-meter-tall monument to the first space traveler appeared - the little mongrel Laika, who went into space and died in 1957. A full-length 3D cartoon was recently dedicated to Belka and Strelka, in which the narration is told on behalf of Strelka’s son Pushka.