“The era of the dog": the names and stories of space exploration in the USSR

Today, when the planet has been accompanied by the International Space Station (the sixth among the orbiting stations launched by different countries) on the Earth’s orbit for almost two decades, it seems almost natural for man to remain in space for a long time, satellite communications, and preparation of expeditions to explore Mars. However, at the dawn of the space age, any of these now facts was new, risky, and a breakthrough in science and technology. And one of the first milestones of this long space journey was the flight into space of animals.

How it all began, or who the best friend of man

The initiator and author of the idea of ​​launching animals into space in the late 1940s was


He conceived the program was to be the start for the path to the first person’s orbit.
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S.P.Korolev ( photo )

For advice, Korolev turned to V.I. Yazdovsky, who at that time was working at the Scientific Research Testing Institute of Aviation Medicine of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Exactly


Later on, he led a group of researchers that began biomedical research on the preparation of a human space launch.

However, human space research was a long-term goal, and preparing animals for flight was the first guideline for collecting medical data on the effects of this type of flight on a living organism.

In the USSR in the years 1948-1949 there were no significant studies on this topic, so the research group primarily studied foreign (American) experience and literature.

V.I. Yazdovsky ( photo )

Guided by the main objectives of the project (measurement of the influence of conditions of extreme temperatures, vibrations, weightlessness, placement in a confined space on the state of the animal), the research team led by V.Yazdovsky maximally narrowed the possible options for a suitable animal to only two: primates or dogs. However, by the end of 1950, it was decided in favor of the second option - a dog would fly into space.

It would seem that primates in many aspects are more similar to humans and they should be prepared for the first flights. However, they also had a number of significant shortcomings: they predicted difficulties in training, primates were more likely to get colds or other diseases. In addition, there were fears that because of higher expressiveness than dogs, primates could tear off the sensors that were planned to be installed on animals for medical measurements.

“Do I need to bark falsetto?”

The choice of dogs as candidates for the flight put on the agenda the question of finding suitable individuals. This task was non-trivial and consisted in finding a compromise between the needs of rocket engineers and the goals of medical biologists.

After numerous discussions, it was decided that it is worth running two animals in one container in order to get objective results (for both dogs) regardless of the characteristics of the individual and the specific rocket launch and flight.

The first qualifying criterion was that due to the limitations of the volume of the future structure (0.28 m ³ ), the dogs had to be small in size and weight: up to 6 kg and up to 35 cm high.

In turn, consultation with experts on the behavior of dogs showed that not all breeds of small dogs can be compatible with each other, which further narrowed the search field.

One of the important additional criteria for the selection of animals was a high level of learning. It was also important that the dogs were white or bright in color - this was required to improve the contrast in the planned survey of animal behavior during the flight, which will take place in conditions of insufficient lighting in the capsule.

Finally, it was required that the dogs were short-haired and necessarily female, this condition was caused by the presence of medical sensors and a special flight suit that would be more difficult to perform in the case of male individuals (the main catch was that dogs were of different sexes defend the need, and weaning the males from the fact that the spacecraft will not have columns for lifting the paw, was not possible).

Dogs of the first detachment ( photo )

All these numerous conditions for the search for suitable candidates caused among the experts in catching an ironic joke that it was not necessary that the dogs should have blue eyes and a barking tone in C major?

The first space potion squad

By the summer of 1951, it was possible to meet all the above criteria and select the animals necessary for the flight. Of these, the first canine “detachment” was formed, consisting of 8 candidates : Albina, Bobik, Kozyavka, Dezik, Lisa, Baby, Smelaya and Gypsy. All dogs were stray and mixed breeds - this gave them an advantage, because due to circumstances such individuals are more stable and hardened by difficult living conditions.

In preparing the dogs for flight, they were taught to wear special clothes. She was of two types: the first type was made of light silk fabric and was a shirt to the middle of the back and pants. The second type of clothing (cesspool, to remove secretions) was put on under the fixative and looked like tight pants with a soft hose made of porous rubber.

In addition, the dogs were trained so that they could safely be in a small cabin for a long time. The experiments showed the nature of the dog, and the researchers determined which type of flight was more suitable for the duration. Dogs were necessarily tested in pairs, because the problem of psychological compatibility was relevant for them (it was required that the dogs behaved peacefully in the neighborhood with each other, without showing aggression or heightened interest in the partner).

The first flight - a duet of dogs Dezika and Gypsy - took place on July 22, 1951 . The vehicle with animals climbed to (suborbital) altitude 101 km, reached a speed of 4200 km / h and successfully returned to the ground with live dogs. It was the first successful launch of animals, two months ahead of similar successes of the Americans.

Dezik and Gypsy ( photo )

The next six rocket launches with dogs on board took place with varying results. Of the six launches of rockets with dogs on board in 1951, four were successful, and two ended with the death of animals (in one case the parachute did not open, in the other - during landing there was a depressurization of the cabin with dogs).

Notable was the case when, literally on the way to the launch of the rocket, one of the dogs escaped. As a matter of urgency, an order was given to find a replacement from among the dogs living in the area of ​​the cosmodrome, which was promptly implemented. However, since there was no accompanying documentation for a new, just-caught dog, it was given the code name ZIB - Replacement for the Disappeared Bobiku with the help of S. Korolev.

Give new - give five-year plan in one month!

If we recall the secrecy of the Soviet years and the constant fear of admitting failures or mistakes in any areas of science, it becomes obvious that all launches of missiles with dogs on board were classified. However, this successful experience after a few years was useful and became known to the whole world.

October 4, 1957 in the USSR, the world's first launch of an artificial Earth satellite. The sociopolitical effect of this news was so overwhelming that even the Soviet government itself was not ready for it. And only some time later, realizing the breakthrough, but underestimating the whole scope of the work, the government decided to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the October Revolution and the Soviet government with another new technical achievement of the Soviet rocketry, similar to the satellite of destination. For all the work on the design, testing and launch was given only one month ...

There was no time to prepare a completely new satellite technical solutions, it was here that the successful experience of rocket engineers came in handy - it was decided to launch a dog into the satellite together with the satellite, now announcing this in public.

For three and a half weeks, it was necessary to carry out preparatory work for the launch, much to make again for the rocket and the dog cabin, to test. Works went literally all day, without breaks and days off.

As a result, the second satellite was launched even three days ahead of schedule, on November 3, 1957 . And it became the first launch of an animal into Earth orbit with cosmic speed - before that, all launches were considered only

History of Laika, alas, without a happy end

So, on November 3, the name of Laika became well-known, although initially her name was Kudryavka - employees of the Yazdovsky group called her Laika for the habit of barking demanding and loud.

Like ( photo )

However, the fate of Laika, unfortunately, turned out to be sad: from the very beginning the spacecraft was not planned to return to Earth - for this at that time there were no such technical solutions. At the same time, the flight of the Laika was calculated for several days, and even a 20-day feeding system was created - a feeding trough, which looked like a ribbon, consisting of small boxes with jelly-like high-calorie food.

According to calculations, it was assumed that Laika would stay in orbit for at least a week. However, it was not taken into account that the pressurized cabin can be heated under the sunlight, and there was no place to dump excess heat. As a result, the temperature in the cabin grew rapidly, which eventually led to the death of the dog.

And although the Soviet and world publics broadcast reports that Laika had safely stayed in orbit for seven days, after which she was put to sleep (allegedly ate poisonous food prepared in advance), in fact, the dog died several hours after launch. Sputnik-2 itself remained in orbit for almost six more months (until April 1958).

In the USSR, before the flight, Laika was called not only Kudryavka, but also Bug and Limonchik, after world news about the launch, she was called Linda and Loki, and in the American press she received a playful nickname, which can be translated into Russian as “Sputnik” , - a play on nouns “mixed breed dog” and “companion” (Muttnik).

People and dogs

After the successful launch of satellites in 1957, the Soviet space program set out to develop manned rockets with a man on board, which, as a result, led to the development of new systems for evacuation, life support and landing of the launched vehicles.

Here, the history of interesting names and the mutual influence of people on the dogs, “cosmonauts”, can be continued by the Luck dog. Her name was replaced by another - “Star” - the first cosmonaut who flew after her into space in 18 days (flight of Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961). The launch of the dog Zvezdochki took place on March 25, 1961, and with it a wooden mannequin of man visited the orbit on board the spacecraft - both “passengers” successfully returned to the ground.

So the first cosmonaut influenced the name of the dog-colleague.

And a year earlier, another dog duet to some extent set the agenda for the flight of the first cosmonaut. Speech about the flight of dogs Belka and Strelka, which went into orbit on August 19, 1960 . They performed a 24-hour flight (17 turns) around the Earth, but on the fourth branch Belka began to bark, try to get out of her costume, she began to vomit. And although Strelka felt fine during the entire flight, based on the analysis of data on the state of Belka, it was decided that the first manned flight into space would not be so long - and it was reduced to one orbit around the Earth's orbit.


Belka and Strelka ( photo )

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After the launches, the fate of the “astronauts” dogs was different, but if they managed to land and survive successfully, then she was always happy and noticeable. After completing their flight missions, some dogs were picked up by scientists from a research group engaged in flight and medical research. Other animals remained to live at the Institute of Aviation Medicine, where they became celebrities: they were often invited to television and radio programs, they were made heroes of novels and novels.

So flights of dogs became a launching pad for a new era in space exploration. Including thanks to them, the road to space was opened for man. Ironically, the errors that occurred during the launch of animals and led to unsuccessful results were sometimes repeated during manned launches with real cosmonauts. Although the exploration of space by people is another chapter in the history of cosmonautics, with its achievements, experiments, curiosities and dramas.