More euphonious names were given to dogs instead of foreign nicknames
Details of the renaming of the first dogs-cosmonauts were told to "MK" at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. As we reported earlier, in fact, Strelka was called Drop, and Belka Vilna.
The world learned about it just a few days ago from the scanned pages of the workbook of Oleg Georgievich Gazenko, one of the founders of space biology and medicine. The diary was exhibited among the exposition of archival materials of the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation "Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences" in the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics.
Leafing through the already yellowed pages, covered by the hand of the legendary academician Gazenko … Working material, a diary, which contains all the important biological parameters of animals, the layout of the electrodes on them and much more. Only towards the end, when we get to the page with the location of the main numbered sensors on the dogs, we read next to one drawn test subject: "Drop (Arrow)", next to the other: "Vilna (Belka)".
Help "MK". The flight of Belka and Strelka took place on the Sputnik-5 spacecraft on August 19, 1960. It lasted more than 25 hours, during which the ship made 17 complete revolutions around the Earth.
In order to understand why the names of the dogs were changed, we will tell you how the selection of applicants for the flight was scrupulous in general. The criteria were strict: the dogs had to be short, up to 35 centimeters, and weigh no more than 6 kilograms. The age limit was also taken into account - from two to six years. Only females were selected, since they did not require sophisticated sewage devices (toilet). But even if some applicant for a place in the carriage met all the above requirements, but was a brunette, then she was also given a turn from the gate. Space dogs, according to scientists, should have been light for better observation from the monitor screens, and, which is also important, have an attractive face, in case they were presented to the media. Naturally, with such a selection, the leaders of the experiment could not but attach importance to the names of animals.
They say that almost the commander-in-chief of the strategic missile forces himself, Mitrofan Nedelin, demanded that some foreign names of the dogs be changed to Russian ones.
Thus, among the 12 candidates selected for the flight, the best of the best were Vilna, which later became Belka, and Kaplya, which "turned" into Strelka. Although, upon a closer reading of the notebook, trying to figure out the original names of Belka and Strelka, the employees of the Institute of Biological and Biological Problems, RAS, came across something interesting, namely, that the name Kaplya was already a second time.
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- Here is a list of the nicknames of dogs from the "first squad": "Fox-Chaika, Silva-Vilna, Martian-Laska." As you can see, there is no drop here, - says the press secretary of the institute Oleg VOLOSHIN. - If Vilna's dog “walks” through almost the entire notebook, the second favorite changes periodically. At first, apparently, it was Silva. But on August 4th, instead of Silva, the Martian is already mentioned in the pair. On page 83 you can see that they tried to rename Vilna to Vega (presumably on August 5). The first appearance of the nickname "Drop" appeared in the notebook only on August 13 (p. 91). So so far we have not managed to understand who exactly was called the Drop - either Silva, or - the Martian.
Alas, we could not figure it out either, since among the old IBMP employees we were unable to find, in hot pursuit, those who directly worked with Belka and Strelka (Vilna and Kaplya). But we found the then doctor-laboratory assistant, now Doctor of Medical Sciences Yuri KREYDICH, who already in 1966 sent into space another pair of four-legged animals - Veterok and Ugolok.
- If Ugolek flew with his own nickname, then Veterok was originally Peer, - says Kreidich. - And it was named that way because (sorry) constantly spoiled the air. Naturally, the top management did not like this analogy at all, and a directive was given to change the name of Peer to Veterok. By the way, the flight of Veterok and Ugolok became the longest flight of dogs before a human flight, it lasted 22 days. At that time, for the first time, we came to the conclusion that one cannot go on long space expeditions without a preventive system.
Reference. Belka and Strelka menu at IBMP RAS on the eve of the flight (from Oleg Gazenko's diary): “Feed only fresh food 2-3 times a day: 300 grams of meat, better than boiled meat, don't give chicken bones, don't give fish, any soup.”
Natalia Vedeneeva
