- Sputnik 5
Sputnik 5 was the first spaceflight to send animals into orbit and return them safely back to Earth. Launched on
August 19 1960 , it paved the way for the first human orbital flight less than eight months later withVostok 1 . Sputnik 5 was aUSSR artificial Earthsatellite from the Sputnik space program. It was in fact the second test flight of theVostok spacecraft , and therefore it is sometimes called Korabl-Sputnik 2 ("korabl" is Russian for "ship").Crew
*2 dogs - Belka ("Squirrel") and Strelka ("Little Arrow" or "Pointer")
*40 mice
*2 rats
*A variety of plantsMission parameters
*Mass: 4,600 kg
*Perigee : 287 km
*Apogee : 324 km
*Inclination : 64.95°
*Period: 90.72 minutes
*NSSDC ID: 1960-011AMission highlights
A radio station in
Bonn ,Germany , was among the first to pick up the signal. On the 3rd orbit, a Swedish radio station confirmed this.The spacecraft carried two dogs,
Belka and Strelka , 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants on-board. The spacecraft returned to earth the next day and all animals were recovered safely. The spacecraft also carried a television camera which took images of the dogs.Shortly after the landing, one of Strelka's puppies was sent to
Jacqueline Kennedy as a present from the Soviet Union.Note
The launch time is disputed: Sergei Voevodin gave the time as 08:38:24
UTC while it was officially said to be 08:44:06See also
Russian space dogs
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