THE EARLIEST ASTRONAUTS

August 19, 1960 in the Soviet Union launched the spacecraft "Sputnik-5" with a live cargo on board - dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice and two rats. After that, the dogs Belka and Strelka were among the first animals to orbit space flight and returning to Earth unharmed.

Dog Laika

The very first animals were placed in orbit the Earth, was the Soviet dog Laika. Although the flight was still two contenders - stray dogs Fly and Albina, which has already made a couple of sub-orbital flights before. But scientists have regretted Albina, because she was waiting for the offspring, and the upcoming flight is not supposed to return to Earth astronaut. It was technically impossible.

Dog Laika. For space missions selected homeless animals as purebred dogs were pampered, demanding food and not enough stamina:

So, the choice fell on Laika. During training it for a long time spent in the layout of the container, and before the flight she had surgery: implanted sensors breathing and pulse. A few hours before the flight, on 3 November 1957, a container with Laika was placed in a ship. First, she observed a rapid pulse, but he recovered to near normal values ​​when the dog was in weightlessness. And after 5-7 hours after the start, having made 4 turns around the Earth, the dog died from stress and overheating, even though it was supposed to live for about a week.

Dog Laika:

There is a theory that the death was due to an error calculating the area of ​​the satellite and the lack of temperature control system (during the flight the room temperature reaches 40 ° C). And in 2002 there was the belief that death was caused by a dog that stopped the flow of oxygen. Anyway, the animal died. After this, the satellite took another 2,370 revolutions around Earth and burned up in the atmosphere of 14 April 1958.

However, after a failed mission was carried out more rigorously tested with similar conditions in the world, as a special committee of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers did not believe in the existence of design errors. As a result of these tests, killed two more dogs.

On the death of Laika before the deadline for a long time did not declare in the USSR, transmitting data about the health of the already dead animal. The media reports about his death only a week since the start of the dog in space: it was said that Laika was put down. But, of course, the true causes of death of the animal learned much later. And when it did, it caused unprecedented criticism from animal rights activists in Western countries. Of them received many letters of protest against the ill-treatment of animals, and there were even sarcastic suggestions to send into space the First Secretary of the CPSU NS Khrushchev instead of dogs.

Famous newspaper The New York Times in its issue of November 5, 1957 named Laika "very shaggy, very lonely and very unhappy dog ​​in the world."

Dogs Belka and Strelka

After the flight, in 1957, the dog Laika, who did not return to Earth, it was decided to send the dogs in the daily orbital flight with the possibility of returning to Earth in the descent module. For space flight had to choose dogs with a light color (so they can best be seen on monitors observation devices), weighing less than 6 kg, and height - 35 cm, and they will have to be females (easier for them to develop a device for Urinating ). And besides, the dogs had to be attractive, because, perhaps, they will be presented in the media. For all these parameters approached mongrel dogs Belka and Strelka.

Belka and Strelka:

In preparation for these animals to fly their accustomed jelly is food that has been designed to provide the demand for water and power supply on board the ship. And the hardest part was to teach dogs to spend a long time in a small container close in isolation and noise. To do this, Belka and Strelka for eight days kept in a metal box, the size comparable to the container lander. At the last stage of training dogs were tested on a shaker and centrifuge.

Two hours before the start of "Sputnik-5", which took place August 19, 1960 at 11:44 am Moscow time, the cabin with dogs placed in a spaceship. And as soon as he started and began to climb, the animals were observed strongly rapid breathing and pulse. Stress stopped just after take-off "Sputnik-5." And although most of the flight animals behaved very calmly, during the fourth round of the Earth, the squirrel began to beat and bark, trying to take off belts. She was sick.

Ejection container Belka and Strelka in the museum space:

Subsequently, after analyzing the condition of the dog is, the scientists decided to limit human space flight up to one revolution around the Earth. Belka and Strelka made 17 full turns for about 25 hours, covered the distance of 700 000 km.

It is also worth noting that Belka and Strelka were doubles dogs Gulls and Chanterelles, who died during the launch of the spacecraft of the "Vostok 1K number 1" July 28, 1960. Then the rocket hit the ground and exploded in the 38th second.

Monkeys Able and Miss Baker

Before people began to fly into space, there was sent a few animals, including monkeys. The Soviet Union and Russia sent monkeys into space from 1983 to 1996, the United States - from 1948 to 1985, France sent two monkeys in 1967. A total of about 30 monkeys participated in space programs, and none of them did not fly into space more than once. At an early stage of development of space flight mortality among monkeys was extremely high. For example, in the United States more than half of the animals involved in the launching of the 1940 th and 1950 th years, died during the flight or soon after.

The first monkeys, who were able to survive during the flight were rhesus monkeys Able and squirrel monkey Miss Baker. All previous space missions with the monkeys on the board ended in the death of the animals from choking or failure of the parachute system.

Monkey Miss Baker:

Abel was born at the zoo in Kansas (USA), and Miss Baker was purchased at a pet store in Miami, Florida. Both were taken to the medical school of aviation Navy in Pensacola (USA). At the end of training, early morning May 28, 1959, the monkeys were sent into space aboard a rocket Jupiter AM-18 from the site at Cape Canaveral. They climbed to a height of 480 km and flew for 16 minutes, nine minutes of which they were in a state of weightlessness. Flight speed exceeding 16,000 km / h.

Squirrel monkey Miss Baker waiting to be started:

During the flight from Abel had high blood pressure and shortness of breath, and three days after the successful landing of the monkey died during the removal of implanted electrodes in her body she could not bear the anesthesia. The sensors were implanted in the brain, muscles and tendons to register motion activity during the flight. Miss Baker died November 29, 1984 at age 27 from kidney failure. It reached a maximum for the age of its kind.

Scarecrow Able exhibited at the National Museum of Air and Space Smithsonian Institution. And Miss Baker is buried in the territory of the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville USA (Alabama). On her tombstone is always her favorite delicacy - a few bananas:

Scarecrow Able exhibited at the National Museum of Air and Space Smithsonian Institution

Dog Star

18 days before the flight of Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet Union sent into space "Sputnik-10" with a dog with a star on board. This single-turn flight was 25 March 1961. In addition to the dog, on board the ship was a wooden mannequin "Ivan Ivanovich", which, as planned, was catapulted.

Ship with an asterisk landed near the village of Karsh in the Perm region. That day the weather was bad, and the search party for a long time did not start the quest. However, the lander with a dog found a passer-by, who fed the animal and gave him warm. Later came the search party.

This flight was the final test of the spacecraft before flight into space with a man on board. Nevertheless asterisk was not the last dog that was sent into space.

In Izhevsk, March 25, 2006 was a monument to dog-astronaut Asterisk in the park on street youth.

Chimpanzee Ham

Born in Cameroon African chimpanzee Ham was the first hominid, sent into space. In July 1959 a three-year Ham began to teach the objectives in response to specific light and sound signals. If chimpanzees correctly performed the task, he was given a banana ball, and if not, he received an electric shock to the soles of the feet.

January 31, 1961 Ham was sent on a space ship "Mercury-Redstone 2" from Cape Canaveral in suborbital flight, which lasted 16 minutes and 39 seconds. Upon its completion, the capsule with Ham splashed in the Atlantic Ocean, and the rescue ship found her the next day. Ham was the penultimate flight before space flight American astronaut Alan Shepard (the last flight of the chimpanzee was Enos).

After the flight, the chimpanzee Ham spent 17 years at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, and then was moved to a zoo in North Carolina, where he remained until the end of his days. Ham died at the age of 26 January 19, 1983.

Rats Hector, Castor and Pollux

To examine the vigilance mammal under conditions of weightlessness, scientists in 1961 decided to send into space rats in the meteorological rocket Veronique AGI 24, developed in France. For this purpose, rat brain were introduced electrodes which are read brain signals. And the first surgical intervention to implant electrodes takes about 10 hours, and the mortality rate during such operations has been extremely high. Rodent on which the experiment was conducted, was used only for 3-6 months due to the aging of the animal and necrosis of the skull, which is precipitated by adhesive fixing connector on the skull.

So, the first flight of the rat on Veronique AGI 24 held February 22, 1961. During his rat was held in a stretched position in a container with a special vest. In this case, the first rat, which had been placed in a container beam gnawed cables, read the information for which he was replaced by another rat.

Rat Hector:

40 minutes after the start of the rat, as planned, was evacuated from the rocket, and the next day it had already brought to Paris. There are scientists with journalists gave rodent rat nickname Hector. 6 months after the flight of Hector sedated for the study of the effect of weightlessness on the electrodes in his body.

Nevertheless flight Hector was not the last in the study of vigilance animals in conditions of weightlessness. In the next step was done Doubles start at intervals of three days, which was to enable the parallel observation of two animals. So, October 15, 1962 took place the start Veronique AGI 37 rats with Castor and Pollux.

For technical reasons, the beginning of the flight of the rocket later than the scheduled time, but because of the loss of VHF communications with the search helicopter separated from the rocket warhead was found only in one hour and 15 minutes.During this time Castor died from overheating, since the temperature in the container in which it was upside down, exceeding 40 ° C.

Pollux sent into space October 18, 1962, suffered the same fate. Search helicopters were unable to find the head of the container with the animal.

Cat Felisetta

At the third stage of the study animals vigilance used in zero gravity cat. On the streets of Paris, scientists have caught 30 stray cats and cats, and then began preparations for the flight of animals, including the rotation of the centrifuge and training in an altitude chamber. Sampling took place 14 cats, one of whom was Felix the Cat.

Felix had already prepared for the flight and implanted electrodes in his brain, but at the last minute lucky managed to escape. Urgently astronaut replaced: the cat was chosen Felisetta (Félicette).

Left - Felix, right - Felisetta:

Suborbital flight in a rocket Veronique AGI47 held October 18, 1963. The state of weightlessness lasted 5 minutes 2 seconds.After the flight, rescue service found the separated from the rocket capsule with a cat after 13 minutes after the start. And according to the data, which were obtained after the flight, the cat felt good.

Felisetta quickly became famous, and the flight was regarded by the media as an outstanding achievement. However, the accompanying publication in the press photos cats with electrodes implanted in her head, drew criticism from many readers and fighters against cruelty to animals.

In October 24, 1963 held another space flight under similar conditions with a cat on board. Animal with an unnamed number SS 333 died as the head of the rocket and capsule have been only two days after its return to Earth.

Dogs breeze and Sooty

The first is the longest flight in the history of space exploration and the breeze carried the dog Sooty. Launch took place February 22, 1966, and ended 22 days later flight (biocompanion "Cosmos-110" landed March 17).

After the flight, the dogs were very weak, they observed a strong heartbeat and constant thirst. In addition, when they took off with nylon suits, it was found that the animals have no hair, and appeared diaper rash and sores. Throughout his life, after flying breeze and Sooty spent in the vivarium of the Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine.

By the way, the record for the duration of the flight of dogs was broken five years later: Soviet cosmonauts spent on the orbital station "Salyut" 23 days 18 hours and 21 minutes.

Dogs breeze and Sooty: