Ryland Grace

Grace is a very small cream-colored wire-haired terrier mix. Which terrier exactly impossible to find out but you can see it in his face and ears. He's the kind of dog to act awkward around other dogs but be the clingiest creature with humans. He's cautious around strangers but with his family he's always asking for pets. And he loves cobbing and WILL whine for you to cob him back.

Anyway did you know Ryland Grace dog has actually existed irl. Back when they were still experimenting with sending dogs to space, there were two dogs that underwent lots and lots of training. And right before they were about to take them to the launch site, one dog escaped, and they couldn't tell anyone, not even the operation leader, because everyone will immediately be taken to court. So they found literally just a random dog, named him ZIB (Zamena Ischeznuvshego Bobika; Disappeared Pooch's Substitute) and sent him to space with absolutely zero preparation. He wasn't found out until way later, when he successfully landed with his new space dog buddy and the program leader asked who tf that was. In official documents Zib was later renamed into Zib (Zapasnoy Issledovatel Bez podgotovki; Backup Untrained Researcher). He never went to space again and lived happily with a scientist for the rest of his dog life.

Olesya Ilyukhina

She could have been sold as a purebred Russian toy terrier if she wasn't just a bit larger than the standard. She also probably has some discoloration here and there. But her general attitude is very toy terrier-y. She's always there trying to help with a task when the task requires zero dog and she definitely has a happy tail syndrome. She's very loud and yappy and overly enthusiastic, and it's not very beneficial for her relationships with other dogs - she frequently annoys them and accidentally misses their corrections. But she's a great companion and will bring you her favorite toy when you're upset. She's bad with agility courses because she loses focus pretty quickly but she's surprisingly easily trained. She's like a failed therapy dog who still knows how to open drawers and stuff.

To be fair Olesya has always reminded me of Laika. I'm sure she affected Olesya in indescribable ways when she was a kid and she felt very bitter-sweet agreeing to the mission, knowing she's bound to repeat Laika's fate. I think it gave her some comfort.

Laika was the first animal to orbit the Earth. She was extremely loved but wasn't expected to return from her mission, and she never did, dying 5 hours into from hyperthermia due to a building error, even though she was expected to live for a week.

Yáo Li-Jie

He's a descender of Xiasi Quan. A very, VERY distant descender, probably with a mix of other mutts here and there, so his fur is kind of a mix of different textures and he's way smaller, but he managed to preserve the attitude of Xiasi Quan perfectly. He's a natural leader, he's a hunting dog after all, and he probably had some shepherd dogs in his ancestry because he gets really snappy when someone doesn't listen and makes sure to correct all kinds of unwanted behavior. He's not a big fan of strangers but doesn't get aggressive for no reason. With family, though, he is a huge goofball and very very gentle, even when playing rough.

Since I'm assigning everyone a real space dog, I have to talk about Dezik. I believe Yao as the leader of the mission had already had previous experience being in space, and Dezik had been in space twice! He was THE first dog, along with his space dog buddy, to be sent into the outer layers of the atmosphere. The first time was a success but he unfortunately did not survive the second time.

Not assigning a real dog this time since she never went to space but

Eva Stratt