Vladimir Yazdovsky Vladimir Yazdovsky Vladimir Yazdovsky (1913–1999) was a Soviet space program medical scientist. Yazdovsky was a veteran surgeon and army doctor who joined the Institute for Aviation and Medeicine in Moscow in 1948.There, in the early 1950s, Yazdovsky assisted Sergei Korolev in tests using small animals in sub-orbital spaceflight. His team of researchers helped gather strays from Moscow and helped design various safety measures such as space suits and life-support systems. In 1957 he prepared the dog Laika, the first animal to orbit, the Earth for Sputnik 2. In 1960 Yazdovsky prepared the dogs Belka and Strelka for Korabl-Sputnik 2, the
Korabl-Sputnik 2 orbit by a Swedish radio station. The spacecraft carried two dogs, Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, two rats and a variety of plants, as well as a television camera, which took images of the dogs. One of its objectives was to intercept the US Echo 1A satellite, which was a passive, nitrogen-filled balloon covered in reflective foil and thus highly visible as it passed overhead. Korabl-Sputnik 2 passed near Echo on the second orbit, and the radio system returned audio of the dogs barking as they saw it out the window. The spacecraft returned to Earth at 06:00:00 UTC on