TILT

[thatguy]

(things I learned today)

I went down the rabbit hole of the history of animals in space which landed me on the wiki page for the Soviet space program which included these nuggets:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_dogs

Bobik and ZIB[b]Edit[/b]

[b]Bobik[/b] (Бобик, common Russian name for a small dog) ran away just days before his flight was scheduled to take place on 15 September 1951.[2] A replacement named [b]ZIB[/b] (ЗИБ, a Russian acronym for [i]"Substitute for Missing Bobik"[/i], "Замена Исчезнувшему Бобику" [i]Zamena Ischeznuvshemu Bobiku[/i]), who was an untrained street dog found running around the barracks, was quickly located and made a successful flight to 100km and back.[8][2]

And:

Belka and Strelka[b]Edit[/b]

Belka

Strelka

[b]Belka[/b] (Белка, literally, "squirrel", or alternatively "Whitey") and [b]Strelka[/b](Стрелка, "little arrow") spent a day in space aboard Korabl-Sputnik 2(Sputnik 5) on 19 August 1960 before safely returning to Earth.[9]They are the first higher living organisms to survive orbit in outer space.
They were accompanied by a grey rabbit, 42 mice, two rats, flies and several plants and fungi. All passengers survived. They were the first Earth-born creatures to go into orbit and return alive.[14]

Belka and Strelka in graffiti. 2008
Strelka went on to have six puppies with a male dog named [b]Pushok[/b] who participated in many ground-based space experiments, but never made it into space.[15] One of the puppies was named [i]Pushinka[/i] (Пушинка, "Fluffy") and was presented to President John F. Kennedy by Nikita Khrushchev in 1961. A Cold War romance bloomed between Pushinka and a Kennedy dog named Charlie, resulting in the birth of four puppies that JFK referred to jokingly as [i]pupniks[/i].[16] Two of their puppies, [b]Butterfly[/b] and [b]Streaker[/b], were given away to children in the Midwest. The other two puppies, [b]White Tips[/b] and [b]Blackie[/b], stayed at the Kennedy home on Squaw Island but were eventually given away to family friends.[15] Pushinka's descendants were still living at least as of 2015.[17] A photo of descendants of some of the Space Dogs is on display at the Zvezda Museum in Tomilinooutside Moscow.[18]
A Russian animated feature film called [i]Belka and Strelka: Star Dogs[/i](English title: [i]Space Dogs[/i]) was released in 2010.

--tg