Belka Strelka

Come back to Bremen, Germany

I´d like to see many pictures of my journey!

Quelle: Wikipedia

"Sputnik 5

Sputnik 5 startete am 19. August 1960 und trug unter anderem zwei Hunde in den Weltraum: Strelka (russisch für „kleiner Pfeil“) und Belka (russisch für „Eichhörnchen“). Nach 18 Erdumkreisungen in einer Bahnhöhe von 306 bis 330 Kilometer und bei einer Erdumkreisung in 90,7 Minuten, landeten am 20. August 1960 beide Hunde sicher wieder auf der Erde. Dies war der zweite Flug des Prototyps der Wostok und ein entscheidender Schritt für die Technik der weichen Landung.

Strelka gebar später sechs Welpen, von denen eine, Pushinka, Caroline Kennedy, der Tochter des US-Präsidenten John F. Kennedy, geschenkt wurde. Die Übergabe erfolgte durch den sowjetischen Regierungschef Nikita Chruschtschow.^[5]

Heute befinden sich die präparierten Körper von Strelka und Belka, ausgestellt in Glaskästen, im Kosmonautenmuseum in Moskau."

English:

List of references: Wikipedia

"Belka (Белка, literally, "Squirrel" or, alternately, "Whitey") and Strelka (Стрелка, "Arrow") spent a day in space aboard Sputnik 5 on 19 August 1960 before safely returning to Earth.

They were accompanied by a grey rabbit, 42 mice, 2 rats, flies and several plants and fungi. All passengers survived. They were the first Earth-born creatures to go into orbit and return alive.

Strelka went on to have six puppies with a male dog named Pushok who participated in many ground-based space experiments, but never made it into space.^[12] One of the pups was named Pushinka (Пушинка, "Fluffy") and was presented to President John F. Kennedy's daughter Caroline by Nikita Khrushchev in 1961. A Cold War romance bloomed between Pushinka and a Kennedy dog named Charlie resulting in the birth of 4 pups that JFK referred to jokingly as pupniks.^[13][14] Two of their pups, Butterfly and Streaker were given away to children in the Midwest. The other two puppies, White Tips and Blackie, stayed at the Kennedy home on Squaw Island but were eventually given away to family friends.^[12] Pushinka's descendants are still living today. A photo of descendants of some of the Space Dogs is on display at the Zvezda Museum outside Moscow.^"