Animal heroes The beginning of the Russian space program

On August 19, 1960, the world was shocked by a sensation: Soviet dogs Belka and Strelka flew into space and returned to Earth alive.
Before Yuri Gagarin’s flight, tailed testers had been scouting the road to the stars for 10 years.
They were prepared in the same way as people: they were spun in a centrifuge, accustomed to isolation in a pressure chamber. It became clear that very soon there would be a person in orbit.