I always see people talk about Laika the space dog, but never the other dogs Russia sent up.

August 19. On this day in 1960, the dogs Belka and Strelka went into space to spend 25 hours in their spaceship, orbit more than 700,000 kilometers and safely return to Earth on August 20.

Bonus doodle under the cut

∅G-DOGS, ZOM n°4, published in April 2023.

The dog, Canis lupus familiaris, has followed Homo sapiens everywhere for 15,000 years. Naturally when Homo sapiens left Earth for space, dogs followed them. Generation after generation of natural and artificial selection adapted them to their new environments. This little booklet focuses on dog breeds living in low to 0-gravity artificial habitats. 01: The Spider Sighthound uses its claws and elongated middle toes to grab things and move itself in zero-gravity.

02: The Bloodhound is selected and genetically modified for its olfaction. It can detect chemical leaks in habitats.

03: Patous de Station are both companions and protectors. The breed reached great sizes after a few generations in zero-G.

04: The Dachshund & Pug are companion dog breeds that have been selected to develop traits suited to space habitats and are impossible to maintain on the ground.

Laika (literally, "Barker") was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, launched into low orbit on 3 November 1957. As the technology to re-enter the atmosphere had not yet been developed, Laika's survival was never expected. She died by overheating hours into the flight, on the craft's fourth orbit.