Korabl-Sputnik 4 (or Sputnik 9) was a Soviet spacecraft launched on March 9, 1961 at 06:29:00 UTC. It was a test flight of the Vostok 3KA spacecraft, carrying the mannequin Ivan Ivanovich, a dog named Chernushka, some mice and a guinea pig. Prior to Korabl-Sputnik 4, the two previous missions in the Vostok programme were both launched in December 1960, and both ended in failure.
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| Chernushka space flight launch cover postmarked at Minsk on March 9, 1961. |
Korabl-Sputnik 4 was successfully placed into low Earth orbit. The spacecraft was only intended to complete a single orbit, so it was deorbited shortly after launch, and reentered on its first pass over the Soviet Union. It landed at 08:09:54 UTC, and was successfully recovered. During the descent, the mannequin was ejected from the spacecraft in a test of its ejection seat, and descended separately under its own parachute.
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| Photo: Chernushka ("Blackie") made one orbit on board Korabl-Sputnik-4 on March 9, 1961, with a dummy cosmonaut (nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich), mice and a guinea pig. The dummy was ejected out of the capsule during re-entry and made a soft landing using a parachute. Chernushka was recovered unharmed inside the capsule. |
(Reference from
Korabl-Sputnik 4)
