In the 1950s and 60s the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a race to
see who could be the first to send a man into space. The Cold War was in full swing and both
countries wanted to dominate the final frontier. Both countries worked on rocket designs and
support systems that would allow them to send a cosmonaut or astronaut into Earth's orbit,
and return them safely home. And both countries used animals to test the safety of their designs.
Sadly, many of those history-making animals never made it home. The courage and sacrifice
of the US and Soviet space animals is history that deserves to be remembered.
One of the United States first animals in space was a one pound squirrel monkey named
Old Reliable, because of how quickly he picked up on training at the Navy's aviation medical
school in Pensacola Florida. The US chose squirrel monkeys because of how sensitive they are to their
environment, making their biological responses to the stresses of being in space easy to monitor.
Before the Jupiter A M13 bearing Old Reliables capsule blasted off at Cape Canaveral on Friday
December 13 1958 at 3:38 in the morning, the scientists renamed the monkey Gordo,
which was an easier name to pronounce over radio communications. He was equipped with
a plastic leather lined helmet, strapped to a custom-built couch with medical monitoring
equipment. Gordo survived 9 minutes in space, but was lost when his capsule splash landed in
the ocean and the beacon to signal the waiting rescue ship did not go off. Despite the loss,
the mission was considered a success. Scientists believe, despite not being able to find him,
that Gordo survived the landing, and that a human could have done the same.
Numerous monkeys and apes of several species were flown by the US in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.
About two-thirds of all the monkeys launched in the 1940s and 50s died on the missions,
or soon after landing. While the US was primarily working with monkeys in their space program,
the USSR had a different animal of choice, dogs. The Soviet space program utilized all female dogs
because they were believed to be easier to handle. They used animals picked up as strays from Moscow
streets because they thought that those animals could bear hunger and extreme temperatures more
easily than house pets. The Soviets were launching suborbital flights with dogs
inside them as early as 1951. Using R1 rockets, pups with names like Dezik, Tsygan, Malyshka
and Zib successfully ventured into the upper atmosphere, and most returned to tell the tale.
Zib was particularly interesting. Usually Soviet space dogs received extensive conditioning and
training before being launched, but Zib was picked up off the streets because a dog named Bobik,
who had been trained, managed to escape and run away shortly before her flight.
Zib is actually an acronym for the soviet words for, replacement for missing Bobik.
Despite receiving virtually no training, Zib completed her mission and returned safely home.
Another Soviet dog made history by becoming the first animal to orbit the earth. A 13 pound stray
named Laika, originally called Kudryavka, or a Little Curly, the International Press gave her
the name Laika, or Barker, after her introduction by Russian radio to the adoring public,
in which she barked into the microphone. After the successful launch of the first satellite in space,
Sputnik on October 4th 1957, Soviet scientists were tasked with creating a satellite to carry
a dog into space. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev requested that the next history-making satellite
blast-off on the anniversary of the Russian Revolution, which was November 7th. With this
tight deadline of less than a month's preparation, scientists were pressed for time on designing
Sputnik 2. Chosen partly because her white fur with dark spots reproduced well in black-and-white
photos, Laika was extensively trained for her flight along with a second dog named Albina,
which translates roughly to Whitey, and another dog named Kozyavka, or Little Fly. Kozyavka was
used to test the systems on the rocket including life-support, Albina was Laika’s backup in case
anything went wrong. Though Albina may have been a better candidate for the flight than Laika because
she'd already flown in a high-altitude rocket twice before. But Albina had a litter of puppies
and scientists were reluctant to send her on the mission. They already knew the dog they sent into
space would not be coming home. The equipment to safely return a living creature from orbit
had not been invented yet. The capsule would only be equipped with one day's worth of food
because scientists weren't certain the dog would be able to eat at all. There were also concerns
about weight. The first Sputnik launched the month before weighed about 40 pounds, Sputnik 2
would weigh an astonishing 250 pounds. Laika was outfitted with extensive biological monitoring
instruments through surgeries, and a special waste eliminating suit created just for female dogs that
took training for the animal to get accustomed to. She was kept in smaller and smaller boxes to
prepare for the restrictive space capsule, and trained to sit calmly for a long time. Laika
was also run through centrifugal simulations to prepare her body for the stresses of spaceflight.
It must have been difficult for Russian scientists to send the famously even-tempered Laika off
to her death. Adilya Kotovskaya, a scientist on the mission, said before Laika’s mission,
“I was crying. We all knew in advance that she would die. We were asking her to forgive us.”
Critics at the time protested the use of Laika. The National K9 Defense League in the United
Kingdom asked all dog owners to participate in a minute of silence for Laika. Some animal
lovers protested in front of Russian embassies. Before launch, one of her handlers took Laika to
his home and his children spent a few hours playing with the dog before the flight. One
of the people who prepared Laika before the flight later said that as she was strapped
into the capsule someone kissed Laika’s nose, and wished the dog bon voyage before shutting
the door. Laika blasted off on November 3rd 1957 in an R7 rocket. After surviving the unbelievable
gravitational pull of takeoff and making it to orbit, the jubilant Soviet scientists sent the
message, “Alive! Victory!” to authorities for distribution through the press. At the time,
the official story circulated suggested Laika was alive for a few days in orbit,
and had died a painless pre-planned death. It was not until 2002 that scientists shared with the
world that she probably died from the heat and stress only a few hours after the flight began.
Laika’s capsule orbited the earth over 2,500 times and burned up when it rentered the
Earth's atmosphere the following April. Sky watchers in the United States reported UFOs
and bright lights. What they were seeing was Laika’s return to earth.
Oleg Gazenko, one of the scientists to work with Laika expressed dog lovers' opinions about her
loss. He later said, “The more time passes, the more I am sorry about it. We did not learn enough
from the mission to justify the death of the dog.” Laika has been memorialized in popular culture,
children's books, films and stamps. In 2005, NASA named a soil target on Mars,
part of the Mars Exploration Rover mission Laika, because of her contribution and
sacrifice for space travel and humanity. It would be almost three years since the
flight of Laika and Sputnik 2 before the Soviet Union's Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine
would again send dogs into space. The dogs on the next flight were named Belka and Strelka,
and they would not be going alone. Soviet scientists also sent rats, mice, a rabbit, fruit
flies and plants with them. The primary aim of the mission was to gather intelligence regarding the
physiological effects of spaceflight. Information that would be used to determine whether or
not short-term exposure to weightlessness seriously impacted basic bodily functions.
Belka, which translates to Squirrel, and Strelka, Little Arrow, were small like Laika, but unlike
their unfortunate colleague, their capsule was equipped with parachutes. Cameras were installed
in the capsule to record their every move. When Sputnik 5 reached orbit neither the dogs were
moving. However after the fourth time around the earth Belka vomited, and both dogs began to move
and bark. After they circled the earth 17 times the successful pair returned to earth and became
almost instant celebrities. The taxidermy pair may be viewed at the Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow.
A year after the flight of Belka and Strelka, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth.
Shortly before he did, a dog was sent into orbit along with the dummy shaped like a cosmonaut.
Yuri Gagarin was said to have joked that he was unsure if he was the first man in space,
or the last dog. The Soviet dogs continued to make history when Ugolyok “Coal”, and Veterok
“Light Breeze”, orbited the earth for 22 days in 1966. Their length of time and orbit was not
beaten by humans until the Soyuz 11 mission in 1971, and is still a record for canines in space.
And while animals in space offered valuable information
that was necessary in order to facilitate manned spaceflight,
they also made a unique connection at a critical time back here on earth.
Though the US and Russia were heavily engaged in the Cold War, President John F Kennedy and Soviet
leader Nikita Khrushchev knew each other well and often exchanged gifts. One of the most interesting
of the gifts was a small white dog named Pushinka. Listed as non-breed on her registration, Pushinka
had an extraordinary parentage. Her mother Strelka was one of the first dogs the Soviets
sent into space. The flights of the Soviet dogs had captured the US and the world's imagination,
and in a story related to the BBC by her daughter Carolyn, when first lady Jackie Kennedy ran out of
things to say while seated next to Khrushchev at a state dinner in Vienna, she asked about Strelka’s
puppies to which the doggy given birth after her famous flight. A few months later Khrushchev sent
Pushinka, the daughter of Strelka , to the White House. According to Carolyn, “My father had no
idea where the dog came from, and couldn't believe my mother had done that.” By some reports Pushinka
had to be x-rayed and frisked for Soviet listening devices before being allowed into the White House.
Pushinka became a favorite of the Kennedys children, and also one of the Kennedys dogs,
going on to have a litter of puppies with the Kennedy's Welsh Terrier named Charlie. The
puppies were named Butterfly, Whitetips, Blackie and Streaker and Kennedy reportedly referred to
them as Pupniks. The puppies were given to four families in the United States after nearly five
thousand letters arrived at the White House requesting the dogs. About a year after the
arrival of Pushinka, the Cuban Missile Crisis, one of the defining events of the Cold War
took place. Historian Martin Sandler argued in his 2013 book, The Letters of John F. Kennedy,
that Pushinka and the relationship between Kennedy and Khrushchev helped prevent nuclear war.
Animal testing of any kind has always been controversial. And I suppose it's
no surprise that during a period of extreme competition between nuclear powers that our
animal friends will be drawn into the fray. These creatures couldn't defend themselves,
they didn't volunteer for missions that had to be frankly confusing, painful,
terrifying and for many of them fatal. But as they always have, man's best friend came with us even
on our most daring missions. And it is no surprise that they also helped to bring us together in our
darkest hour. I can't help but think that when humankind finally goes out to distant
planets that we will bring our canine companions with us. And we will settle the stars together.
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