IRINA TRAVELING - Official Web Site - First flight into space, Belka and Strelka.

At the end of the 19th century, mankind believed that the possibility of conquering space depended on little things and creating a powerful engine. The first rocket capable of carrying an object beyond the limits of gravity was designed by Tsiolkovsky in 1903.
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first spacecraft, Sputnik-1. It became so popular in the Soviet Union that New Year’s toys and badges were made in its shape.
A month later, the second satellite was prepared, with a living being on board, it turned out to be the dog Laika, its purpose was to test survival in space flight conditions. The return of the dog was not planned.

El 4 de octubre de 1957, la Unión Soviética, lanzó la primera nave espacial en el mundo la Sputnik-1. Se hizo tan popular en la Unión Soviética que los juguetes y las insignias de Año Nuevo se hicieron con su forma.

Un mes después, se preparó el segundo satélite, con un ser vivo a bordo, resultó ser la perra Laika, su propósito era probar la supervivencia en condiciones de vuelo espacial. El regreso del perro no estaba planeado.

On August 19, 1960, the fifth satellite was launched with the first animals that successfully returned, the female dogs Belka and Strelka, initially 12 dogs were selected for this flight, females, light in color (for better observation from black and white monitors). black). ). The dogs were trained in overload, adaptability, habituation to feeding devices, clothing with biometric sensors, isolation states, and silence. Belka and Strelka showed the best results. Along with them, mice, rats, seeds of agricultural plants and crops, fungal organisms, some species of microbes. It was the first aircraft with a return to Earth system and an ejection capsule. Their flight lasted just over a day, during which they managed to circle the Earth 12 times and return unharmed.

Dogs became national heroes, they were brought to meetings in schools and kindergartens, there were stamps, calendars and posters with their image.
.In Moscow there is a monument to Laika, also to Belka and Strelka, in addition there is a monument to these dogs both in other cities of Russia and abroad, in Crete, on the territory of the Homo Sapiens Museum, next to the commemorative posters. dead astronauts.

Squirrels and Strelka are in the Moscow Museum of Cosmonautics.
In the same period, the USSR launched the first satellite to the Sun, which, after a soft landing, took pictures of the side of the Moon invisible from Earth.

After 8 months, on April 12, 1961 (official Cosmonautics Day in Russia), the first manned flight into space was made, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin departed aboard the Vostok-1, he became the first person to fly to space and return unscathed. The streets of all Russian cities are named after him. The spacecraft made a complete revolution around the Earth, during this time a person lived, drank, ate, made notes and calculations in space for the first time. No one knew how the organism would behave in orbit.

In 1963, the first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova traveled into space, and in 1965 the first manned spacewalk by A. Leonov took place.
In 1964, the exploration of Mars began. The station “Mars-2” became the first on the surface of the planet, although it crashed.
In 1970, the Venera-7 satellite landed on Venus.

En 1998 se lanzó la estación espacial internacional, que vino a sustituir a la estación Mir. En el proyecto participan 14 países, incluida Rusia. En 2001, el primer turista espacial, el estadounidense D. Tito, viajó al espacio a bordo de una nave rusa. “Unión”.

Rusia continúa desarrollando sus programas espaciales y desarrollos para explorar nuevos espacios