Korabl-Sputnik 2

Korabl-Sputnik 2

Korabl-Sputnik 2 with Strelka and Belka at Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics
Names	Sputnik 5
Mission type	Biological Technology
Operator	Soviet space program
Harvard designation	1960 Lambda 1
COSPAR ID	1960-011A
SATCAT no.	55
Mission duration	1 day
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Vostok-1K No. 2
Spacecraft type	Vostok-1K
Manufacturer	OKB-1
Launch mass	4,600 kilograms (10,100 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date	19 August 1960, 08:44:06 (1960-08-19UTC08:44:06Z) UTC
Rocket	Vostok-L 8K72
Launch site	Baikonur 1/5
End of mission
Landing date	20 August 1960, 06:00:00 (1960-08-20UTC07Z) UTC
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Perigee altitude	287 kilometres (178 mi)
Apogee altitude	324 kilometres (201 mi)
Inclination	64.95°
Period	90.72 minutes
Epoch	19 August 1960 16:09:33 (UTC) [1]
Vostok program ← Korabl-Sputnik 1 Korabl-Sputnik 3 →

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Korabl-Sputnik 2^[2] (Russian: Корабль-Спутник 2, lit. 'Ship-Satellite 2'), also known as Sputnik 5 in the West,^[3] was a Soviet artificial satellite, and the third test flight of the Vostok spacecraft. It was the first spaceflight to send animals into orbit and return them safely back to Earth, including two Soviet space dogs, Belka and Strelka. Launched on 19 August 1960, it paved the way for the first human orbital flight, Vostok 1, which was launched less than eight months later.

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Korabl-Sputnik 2 was the second attempt to launch a Vostok capsule with dogs on board. The first try had been made on 28 July, carrying a pair named Bars (Snow Leopard aka Chaika (Seagull)) and Lisichka (Foxie) and was to carry a pair of Seliger slow scan video cameras to return video footage of the dogs during the mission, which would last between three and five days and be de-orbited and recovered in Kazakhstan or western Siberia. The radio and photographic cameras would not be carried as the capsule could land outside the USSR and the self-destruct mechanism planned to destruct the capsule in this event was not ready yet.

The 8K72K booster lifted from LC-1 around noon on July 28. Launch vehicle performance was entirely normal until just before the pitch and roll program was to start at T+19 seconds. At this point an explosion erupted from the Blok G strap-on, which tore away from the stack. The booster continued upward until T+28 seconds when the imbalanced thrust from the loss of the Blok G caused it to pitch over, the remaining strap-ons breaking off. The payload fairing and descent module broke off while the core and strap-ons flew around in random directions, exploding as they impacted the steppe. The descent module fell to earth and landed seemingly intact near a tracking station on the grounds of the launch complex. A search team arrived at the descent module and heard a hissing sound coming from inside. Although it looked relatively un-damaged, the hull was cracked from impact and upon opening the hatch, the dogs were dead as the impact force had been too rough to be survivable--the parachute system was not designed to deploy until T+40 seconds into launch.

Investigation of telemetry data and analysis of recovered booster debris quickly pinpointed the failure to high frequency combustion instability in the Blok G combustion chamber which caused a fire and disintegration of its RD-107 engine. Commander of the Soviet Strategic Missile Forces Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, who was himself to die in a rocket catastrophe a few months later, reported hearing an explosion several seconds before the Blok G visibly malfunctioned, suggesting the failure in the engine had started early in the launch. The AVD automatic malfunction detection system on the booster had not activated and shut the engines down when the Blok G failure occurred since it was blocked from activating until T+50 seconds.

The problem with high frequency combustion instability had caused a number of previous R-7 vehicle failures but was corrected in the latest model of the RD-107 engines. However, the booster flown on this launch had the older model of the engine in it so no corrective action was needed and the backup 8K72K booster and spacecraft were quickly brought out to LC-1 and prepared.

This occurred one day before the US program suffered a serious setback with the loss of a Mercury capsule.

A commonly circulated film clip showing a Vostok booster lifting with its shadow visible on the steppe is often assumed to be from Yuri Gagarin's launch but it is actually showing the ill-fated July 28, 1960 launch.

Some delay in getting Korabl-Sputnik 2 ready happened when a LOX valve in the booster was found to be faulty and required replacement, postponing launch until August 19. Kazakhstan had been broiling under a summer heat wave and there were concerns that the dogs might overheat inside the capsule while awaiting launch but the weather moderated by launch day. Official sources reported the launch time to have been 08:44:06 UTC; however, Sergei Voevodin gave it as 08:38:24.^{[citation needed]} The booster performed flawlessly and the dogs were soon in orbit. A radio station in Bonn, West Germany, was among the first to pick up signals from the spacecraft, which were confirmed on the third orbit by a Swedish radio station.

The spacecraft carried two dogs (Belka and Strelka), forty mice, two rats and a variety of plants, as well as a TV camera, which took images of the dogs. On the morning of August 20, a malfunction of the infrared orientation system was detected so it was decided to use the backup solar orientation system to align the spacecraft for reentry.

After 25 hours, the spacecraft returned to Earth at 06:00:00 UTC on 20 August, the day after its launch. The dogs were recovered in good health but telemetry data revealed that Belka had vomited during orbit 4, suggesting she experienced spacesickness so it was decided to limit the first manned Vostok mission to a single orbit. Also 28 of the 40 mice carried aboard died.^[4]

A year later Strelka had a litter of puppies, one of which, Pushinka, was sent to First Lady of the US Jacqueline Kennedy as a goodwill present from the Soviet Union. President Kennedy's advisers initially opposed taking the dog for fear that the Soviets might have planted microphones in its body to listen in on national defense meetings.^{[citation needed]}

The bodies of Strelka and Belka were both preserved via taxidermy after their deaths and placed on display in the Moscow Museum of Space and Aeronautics.

• Soviet space dogs
• Animals in space

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