Dog Names Ending in ka

On August 19, 1960, the space capsule Korabl-Sputnik 2, containing plants, fruit flies, forty mice, two rats, a rabbit, and two small stray dogs from the streets of Moscow, launched into space. The experiment was to determine if space travel had long-term effects on the physical body. Prior to the launch, the scientists had chosen stray dogs based on the assumption that they would better be able to handle the rigors of space than more pampered pets would. The dogs, who were named Belka and Strelka, were then trained to endure the specific conditions of space travel, specifically extreme acceleration and confined spaces. The little dogs worried the doctors on land by remaining motionless for the first three orbits around the planet but seemed to snap out of their trance during the fourth orbit. The shuttle orbited the earth between sixteen and eighteen times in twenty-five hours, and when the capsule was recovered near the town of Orsk, the canine cosmonauts were also retrieved and brought home to as many sausages as they could eat.

The dogs were hailed as heroes after their return, and were sent on tour, each wearing their tailored spacesuits; the price of small mixed breed dogs in the USSR doubled and lessons were taught at Soviet schools to instruct children on how to be kind to stray dogs. They were featured in newspapers, magazines, on television, and even on the radio. Strelka, a white dog with patches of chocolate brown, went on to give birth to a litter of six puppies just a few years later, proving that her reproductive system had been unharmed by her foray into space. One of the puppies, named Pushinka, was presented to President Kennedy’s daughter Caroline and became her companion, even learning to climb the ladder to Caroline’s playhouse. Pushinka, often referred to by her nickname of Fluff by the family, eventually whelped four of her own puppies by another of the Kennedy’s dogs, a Welsh Terrier named Charlie. The puppies were given the names of Blackie, Butterfly, Streaker, and White Tip, and were referred to collectively by the president as the Pupniks.

Both Belka and Strelka eventually passed away of old age and taxidermy was used to preserve their bodies after death. The two dogs are on display, with their original shuttle, at the Memorial Museum of Aeronautics in Moscow, although Strelka has also been part of a traveling exhibit that has visited several other countries. In 2010, a fictionalized animated account of Belka and Strelka was released, which spawned not only a sequel, Space Dogs: Adventure to the Moon in 2016, but also a television series, Space Dogs Family, in 2017.