1950s-70s Space Race to The Moon: 1960-08-19 USSR Korabl-Sputnik 2 (Belka & Strelka)

A cover commemorating the launch of Belka and Strelka spaceflight, postmarked in Minsk with a hand cancel on August 19, 1960.

Korabl-Sputnik 2 (or Sputnik 5) was the third test flight of the Vostok spacecraft and marked the first Russian spaceflight to successfully send animals into orbit and return them safely to Earth.

Photo: The space carrier in which Belka and Strelka orbited the Earth on August 19, 1960.

Launched on August 19, 1960, it set the stage for the first human orbital flight, Vostok 1, which took place less than eight months later. The spacecraft carried two dogs (Belka and Strelka), forty mice, two rats, a variety of plants, and a television camera that captured images of the dogs.

A cover commemorating the launch of Belka and Strelka spaceflight, postmarked in Vilnius with a hand cancel on August 19, 1960.

Photo: Strelka (left) and Belka (right), the first two dogs to survive an orbit around Earth on August 19, 1960.

The spacecraft returned to Earth at 06:00:00 UTC on August 20, just one day after launch. Telemetry indicated that one dog experienced seizures and vomited during the fourth orbit, leading to the decision to limit the first manned flight to three orbits. All the animals were recovered safely, and a year later, Strelka had a litter of puppies, one of which was gifted to U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy as a goodwill gesture from the Soviet Union.

A cover commemorating the recovery of Belka and Strelka, postmarked in Minsk with a hand cancel on August 20, 1960.

Photo: Belka photographed aboard the spacecraft while orbiting Earth.

A cover commemorating the recovery of Belka and Strelka, postmarked in Vilnius with a hand cancel on August 20, 1960.

Korabl-Sputnik 2 was the second attempt to launch a Vostok capsule with dogs aboard. The first Vostok test flight carrying dogs, launched on July 28, 1960, failed shortly after liftoff when a combustion-chamber malfunction caused the booster to disintegrate. The dogs, Chaika (“Seagull”) and Lisichka (“Foxie”), were killed when the spacecraft crashed after its parachutes failed to deploy properly.