Soviet space dogs We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog...". Belka (Белка, literally, "Squirrel" or alternatively "Whitey") and Strelka (Стрелка, "Little Arrow") spent a day in space aboard Korabl-Sputnik 2 (Sputnik 5) on 19 August 1960 before safely returning to Earth. They were accompanied by a grey rabbit, 42 mice, two rats, flies and several plants and fungi. All passengers survived. They were the first Earth-born creatures to go into orbit and return alive.Strelka went on to have six puppies with a male dog named Pushok who participated in many ground-based space experiments, but never
The Man from the USSR and Other Plays The Man from the USSR and Other Plays The Man from the USSR and Other Plays is a collection of four dramas by the Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov, first published in 1984. The plays were collected and translated from the original Russian by Nabokov's son, Dmitri Nabokov after his father's death. The volume consists of the plays 'The Pole' ('Polyus', written 1923), 'The Man from the USSR' ('Chelovek iz SSSR', written 1926), 'The Event' ('Sobytie', written 1938) and 'The Granddad' ('Dedushka'). 'The Pole' is a one-act play in blank verse. It was written in 1923, when Nabokov was working as